I was in Pasadena CA a few months ago and looked up to see a Beech 18 with LONG engine nacelles and a distinctive turboprop whine fly over. It appeared to have some dayglo orange paint on wingtips. An unusual sight. Anyone know any details? Is this a Volpar conversion? Westwind?

Sounds like one of the volpars of which many were used in Southeast Asia during the Viet Nam era by Air America. The pilots reportedly loved that aircraft.

Best,
Doug Vernon
San Diego, CA

K & K Aircraft operate a small fleet of Volpar powered Twin Beeches from the former military base of Los Alamitos, along with at least two former US Army beech U-21s (Queen Air). I believe the Beech 18s are used as insecticide sprayers.

Thanks for the info Graham! It never ceases to amaze me. I can look skyward and just get a glimpse of some unuaual acft, post it here, and almost always someone will come forward with lots of info. What a wondeful resource and great group of enthusiasts.

Yes these are one of five beech 18's used by Karl Stolfus's operation..., However they are used to drop sterile med flies...They have a sophisticated gps system and blanket the LA area with the sterile flies. If you see a real beech 18 flying around with sky King on the bottom of the wings, well thats my bird based at brackett field in so cal. Real pratts!

Thanks, SKY....

...Love, Penny.

Lee E mailed me asking me about my plane. I'm new to this computer world and My comp. wouldn't transmit my response. I don't have lee's phone # so I will go public with Lee's question. The beech 18 probably has more stc's than any other plane made! No two planes are the same. A complete list can be found on beech18.net. Mine is a 1946 D18s with all the high gross mods. Original gross wt was 8350, now good for 9450lbs.Costliest mod is the mandatory spar strap also found on king airs.This grounded alot of operators as it cost almost as much as the value of the plane to install! angle of incidence change, elevator down spring mod, more cowling louvres installed for better cooling, elimination of manual cowl flaps and cables, addition of crew hatch door, 2 piece plexiglass windshield, all new instrument panel with garmin 250 gps, I have 2 coffin doors inside which seals off the cabin allowing for a private bathroom in back. When I pull jumpers I remove the small civilian door off the plane. This aircraft is a low cabin model and actually is a mini airliner. Most were military aircraft with some 11000 built. There are probably 750 beech 18's still flying all over the world, second only to the gooney bird or dc3! It is almost affordable, running on reg. auto fuel. Sipping close to 50 gallons/hr at 170mph, I pull up to 13 jumpers, or load up my 7 kids and wife, hold 400 gallons of juice, it requires one fuel stop to go from west florida to LA! My plane was originally purchased in 46 by the brewing corp of america for 60,000.00 She was then owned by mr. Mall of mall tool co. I have an old mall skill saw, very primitive, no safety guard! Then she went to rockford farms in illinois, the bt dick oil comp in arizona. the glastron boat company also owned her. A PHD eng in arcadia calif put 25 hrs on her and bellied her in at chino airport 1979. she landed up in the hands of the smugglers hauling drugs for 3 yrs in the early 80's Then an airline pilot. I have been the proud owner of this lovely lady for the past 13 yrs, longer than any other owner. Aircraft value was only 10,000.00 in 1979, I wouldn't let her go for less than 100,000.00 now. Most gen aviation planes have gone up 300% in the past 17 yrs. A good investment, a dream that came true. I just added a new harley 1200 sportster to the fleet so I can listen to more beautiful music to and from the airport...sky king

Dear Sky King,

Would it be possible to post some photographs of your
lovely aircraft?

I flew as a passenger many years ago in a Beech 18. I was in the radio news business at the time and my station told me to hire an aircraft for a story of a
missing boat off the coast of San Diego. The only aircraft the charter company had to successfully fly out over the Pacific and cover wide areas of the search was a Beech 18. I chartered the aircraft and one of our television camera men climbed on board with his film camera and sound gear...and I followed with my radio news gear. The passenger door had been removed so the camera man would have something to shoot through should we come upon the lost vessle. I had no intention of going anywhere near that open door.

We never found the boat nor any signs of wreckage. It was one of those great adventures we stumble on from time to time.

The aircraft, if I recall correctly was fitted out as a passenger plane with airline type seats etc...much like your aircraft I suspect.

Best wishes,

Doug Vernon
San Diego

Thankyou Sky King. You have satisfied much of my curiosity. A friend of mine who had left seat time in a beech 18 remarked to me that on conventional gear you lost rudder control as the tail settled on landing. That would explain the advantage of the trigear conversion. I never understood the need for the single vertical stabilizer mod. Maybe its because it looked faster. I never cease to be amazed at the wealth of knowledge out there or the people who are willing to share.
Lee McKinney

Look on beech18.com then scroll down to airplane racing a train. My bird has since had the fuselage polished. The tri gear made it possible for non taildragger pilots to master the beast. Given an engine out situation on take off the tri gear is not as safe due to extra drag of nose gear and associated nose gear wheel well. The old pro's have also told me that tri gears require more runway to haul the same loads! A real 18 pilot can 3 point in any crosswind! Lots of good info on beech18.net discussion forums..., Fly-By-Nite Airlines

Brackett Field. One of the last fun, rip roaring airports left in Southern California I guess. Everything else is turning sterile.

I know a guy who once flew for the film industry...his name is Jim Applebee. Know him?

I see your B-18 is modified with square wingtips and nose radar. The Beech 18's I remember had no radar, had round noses and the wings were un-modified.

Tell me about that old Beech 18 in "Beech 18.com.
The one with the side hatch entrance to the cockpit.
Is that a former military plane? Also looks like it had a hatch cut into the side of the aft fusleage. The metal work done around that aft hatch looks a little iffy.

Wish we had an airport here in San Diego like Brackett. Nothing interesting down here anymore...just kids with money dragging aound hanger-on chicks.

Doug

I once attended an airshow at Hamilton Field in Marin County near SF CA, where a pilot named Mike Rust put a Beech 18 through a full aerobatic display. Although most of the crowd was ho-hum about a big slow plane doing an aerobatic display, I was in TOTAL AWE. He even did rolls with one engine feathered, just like Bob Hoover. He must have had a good spar, it sure took some Gs in that show. I read that he later died flying a Cessna 150 aerobat, what a shame.

I love Twin Beeches. Jumped out of many in the 60s and early 70s. Now jumpers want turbines, Twin Otters and King Airs. Many are afraid of Beech 18s and will not jump them, period. The DZ at Sonoma County Airport tried using a Beech 18 recently, it didn't work out. The plane had ONE WAY AIRLINES painted on it. It now resides somewhere else (Vacaville??) and has been repainted as a USMC SNB/C45.

There were a few bad Twin Beech accidents in the early days of my jumping career, mostly on takeoff. I know we were over gross a few times. Back then, the jump gear was much heavier than the lightweight modern stuff I use now. Ten (sometimes more!) fully equipped jumpers in the 1960s weighed a LOT. On a scorching hot summer day we sure used up plenty of runway and climb performance was nothiong to write home about. I shudder to think what would have happened if we lost an engine at 100 ft after takeoff. I doubt if we could have even maintained altitude.

We used to jump Lockheed Lodestars also, but after a horrible spin-in Lodestar (actually a LEARSTAR mod)accident with a load of jumpers in WA, the jump community shunned them. They found new careers in the agricultural import trade.

SKY KING probably knows the danger of jumpers moving back towards the door too soon on a slow jumprun, CG goes to hell real fast. I remember feeling that pre-stall buffet a few times.

Long live the Twin Beech!

Mark

I wouldn't say brackett is a rip roaring airport! I was based at whiteman for 24 yrs. My wife thought there were too many second class citizens..., NOT SO!Patrick Swayze and his wife learned how to fly there. They still own their highly modified C414. John travolta used to fly an air poop there in 74! Channel 4 news anchor john Marshall, married to actress Joan Van Ark has an aerobatic biplane. Morgan Woodward, actor on Dallas has a Waco Biplane. Kevin Donnelly, high roller movie man has his c210, he is a load master at Lake Elsinor and jumps almost every weekend, he's 65! Then theres the other end of the pecking order, guys like mountain man doing pipeline patrol and living in their hangar. I moved to brackett because it was closer to home and 25% cheaper. Brackett is full of law enforcment types with race cars and exotic toys, Doc williams keeps his eurocopter there and lands at the hospital that I work at. The Silver 18 on the front format of 18.com has an interesting story. It sat at compton airport for 25 yrs. The legendary lee Cameron, now 92 yrs young and still hustling airplanes tried to buy it and the owner refused to sell it. He finally passed away and his wife said just come and haul it away. The chickens had been living in it and wee wee is highly corrosive. A crane had to be used to pull it out from behind a residence. The jungle growth was 10 ft high. The plane was taken to whiteman for restoration. Alot of work was done to eliminate the chicken damage, It was sold to a computer whiz in Houston Texas for 100K! Can't make out any crummy sheet works on that one. Look at the AT 11 on that site. Now there's a project, it is 5 different airplanes put together to make the only high cabin at11 in the world. Lee is asking 500K and is in it much more. It needs to be sold to the movie industry movie people or an eccentric tycoon! She started out as a stock at11 and landed up in the museum in clearwater florida. Lee purchased it and the main spar was junk. He found a super that had flipped over on it's back and used the super wing tip to wing tip and put the two together. Then a super fuselage from Mark Thompsons movie boneyard was dismantled and all the high cabin structure with all new skins were used to make a low cabin to a high cabin. An Airstair door was added, then a camera hatch on right side.I drove up to northern calif to pick up a super tail assy that was corrosion free. That was spliced on! The engines on it came off the float beech 18 used in the movie the Phantom filmed in Thailand. It has digital shadin and collins avionics and I test flew it 3 yrs ago! Mike Rust put on a hell of a show. Legendary "Spike" pulled jumpers in his beech and was always way carefull of his load. It is rumored that a big fat kid jumped in the plane just before take off and skip and 11 jumpers were killed at Taft calif. I pulled jumpers there for a 30 yr reunion and some jumpers were hesitant to climb on board. We did a formation load and the king air gave me a 9000 ft head start. We both got to 15K at the same time. I would like to go to Sun& fun but I will be busy building my new home. I made Oshkosh, now that was a treat. I love florida, that is aviation country. Sky King

Whiteman Air Park....that is the other airport I was trying to think of. I use to live in Studio City on
Laural Canyon Blvd. Traveling east...or was it north...anyways I use to go by Whiteman. I never stopped by but was always intreaged about the place.
I remember the first time I went past the place...which at that time was surrounded by trees and other things one could not see through...and all of a sudden up pops an airplane. I had no idea at that time there was an airfield there. I damn near ran off the street.

LA use to have loads of great airports but I guess most have disappeared.

I use to drive out to an airport way east of L.A. Lots of various old aircraft out there. This was back in the early '70's. I can't recall the name of the airfield but the last time I drove out a bunch of Connies were being scrapped. I just turned around and headed home with tears streaming down my face. I never went back to the place.

Doug

I attended the Avalon (Australia) Airshow yesterday.
Amongst some great recip action, there were
2 lovely Twin Beech's there. Both still with Pratt and Whitney Wasp Junior Radials.
1 with 2 bladed props and the other with 3 bladed props.
Got plenty of photos's. As soon as they are developed I will send copies to Greg and ask if he might post them on the new site for all of you to enjoy.