Last night on the new we heard of a WWII era DC-3 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff on its way for engine testing. This plane was a workhorse of the war, many were made and was incalculable to the war effort but as the NTSB agent explained this 75 year old plane built in 1942 though it was a very stable craft that with its age we explained things can go terribly wrong like happened because of so many old parts.
Hey, sounds like our problem. Our before it’s time motorhome design is still truly cutting edge technology but being 45 years old Heck, even FAA inspections could not assure this craft would be reliable…..it was using its motors to fly to a motor testing facility…….also sounds familiar.
Mechanisms made by man can and will fail and no matter how hard we try…..stuff will happen. You must appreciate the ravages of time……we here at the Co-op see and deal with this on a daily basis. The FAA requires periodic checks, teardown and constant vigilance to keep old aircraft flying, your GMC Motorhome is absolutely no different.
Are 75 year old planes cost less than a new one……you betcha but does it need as much and more love to keep them doing their job? Yup! Still even with all of that work these DC-3 historic planes can still do their job. This was a 25 passenger aircraft being used to carry freight.
Finding what happened the FAA wants to apply what they learned from the crash to check other like craft for those issues…….this also sounds like our GMC.
From a suggestion, were going to start a video series on issues we run into on our coaches that GM may have never considered. They looked at the coach having a reliable 15 year life span……we’re at 45 years now so a whole set of issues are coming up.
Our first video of this year now out shows how the bodies on every coach may have started to say on its frame due to floor board deterioration. Not just from rotted holes in the floor but the tensile strength of the body support system is being compromised.
Look for more videos on our YouTube site “Jimbounds”. I hope soon we can shift the videos to be easier to find……for now though go there and we’ll be posting short “check on this” videos we all need to consider. We see so many things working on the volume of coaches we see. I want to pass all that on.
Ok, stay tuned for all that……thanks for the suggestion Marco…..a college professor himself I hope I can help all of you to keep your beloved GMC “in the air”.
Thanks for dropping by, we’ll see you tomorrow and I’ll let you know when the next video posts……..
Jim – You’re probably familiar with this outfit that rebirths DC-3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basler_BT-67
Given the FAA scrutiny, I’m sure, they do a more reliable job than Explorer.
(You may remember, I owned a beautiful GMC II but, I was never convinced that Explorer did all the renewal they claimed to have done).