Flightengineer
Well-Known Member
Hi guys,
I always admired the ATC pilots who during WW2 without accurate maps, GPS navigation, accurate weather forecasts, flew on piston transport planes over the Himalayas. This January our crew lost the left engine over Western China on our cargo 204 plane and my thought was about these guys on their C-47. They didn't have much modern equipment that we have but did they dangerous job. I think these guys had not only wings but also iron nerves. Unfortunately, many of them crashed and remained there in the mountains forever with their planes and crews.
For a long time I was going to patch my AVI Bronco, so this recent incident only pushed me to start. I made patches, more about this here
https://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/threads/patches-for-my-humpjacket-project.24265/
I studied dozens of photos of different ATC jackets in books and in the net, it was very exciting and informative.
Pilots often marked their flights over the hump on their A2 with camel pic - one camel - one mission so I chose the famous unnamed A2 jacket from Willis R. Allen collection as prototype, a photo of which can be
seen in the well-known book of J.Conway and J.Maguire.
Of course, remembering our engine failure, I chose this mission paint scheme, because a camel turned backward meant a return back due to engine failure.
I really enjoyed all my work process on the patches and jacket painting.
Here is my jacket inspired by ATC hump pilot's A2 jackets.
Thanks for watching
I always admired the ATC pilots who during WW2 without accurate maps, GPS navigation, accurate weather forecasts, flew on piston transport planes over the Himalayas. This January our crew lost the left engine over Western China on our cargo 204 plane and my thought was about these guys on their C-47. They didn't have much modern equipment that we have but did they dangerous job. I think these guys had not only wings but also iron nerves. Unfortunately, many of them crashed and remained there in the mountains forever with their planes and crews.
For a long time I was going to patch my AVI Bronco, so this recent incident only pushed me to start. I made patches, more about this here
https://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/threads/patches-for-my-humpjacket-project.24265/
I studied dozens of photos of different ATC jackets in books and in the net, it was very exciting and informative.
Pilots often marked their flights over the hump on their A2 with camel pic - one camel - one mission so I chose the famous unnamed A2 jacket from Willis R. Allen collection as prototype, a photo of which can be
seen in the well-known book of J.Conway and J.Maguire.
Of course, remembering our engine failure, I chose this mission paint scheme, because a camel turned backward meant a return back due to engine failure.
I really enjoyed all my work process on the patches and jacket painting.
Here is my jacket inspired by ATC hump pilot's A2 jackets.
Thanks for watching
