A Love Letter from an Old Friend

There was a time when some pilots earned their way up the ladder of hours by hauling checks and other
assorted cargo through the dark of night.

For the most part his was done in loud nasty looking aircraft who were at the end of their useful years. Whether these operations were called “haulin’ the midnight mail” or “freight dogging” they were conducted pretty much in all weather. The pilots would pound their way through the early darkness of dusk, land at the major cargo hub, conk out in the crew lounge for a few hours of sleep and then scurry back to their aircraft and fly until dawn. The challenges were aircraft that swilled engine oil, relentless icing conditions, no onboard radar and who-knows-what types of cargo. If you were smart it built an amazing amount of skill. If you were un-smart the end result was bent metal at best or fatal at worst.

Over the past few decades, the introduction of light cargo specific aircraft, such as the Cessna Caravan, and advances in technology such as on-line banking and digital photographs have spelled the near extinction of the well-worn freight dog aircraft, such as the one that I flew- the Beechcraft Model 18. Here at AirVenture 2022 there are a few of these classic freight dogs on static display. One such aircraft is N18RY. Still in its cargo dog configuration this Beech 18 has been restored and stood gleaming in the grass just off of the EAA flight line. Being an “E” series, the aircraft has a 49 foot wing span, stands 9.5 feet tall not including antennas. Mounted on its wings is a pair of Pratt and Whitney R-985s radial engines each of which cand produce 450 horsepower and when run up may actually frighten small animals out of their reproductive instincts and rob long-term pilots of a portion of their hearing. The aircraft has a cruising speed of 200 Like so many other Beech 18s, N18RY started its life as a clean corporate aircraft. Constructed in 1957 for racing legend Rosco Turner the aircraft was originally registered as N5617D. By her cargo dog days, the aircraft had passed through several other corporate owners. As a cargo bird it is likely that it was often older than those who held its yoke.

Most of the people attending Air Venture simply walk past this classic Beech 18 distracted by the bigger, cooler and sleeker aircraft. A very few of us, who have actually hauled the cargo late at night in one of these birds, wills stop. It’s always easy to spot another “18 driver.” You can tell by the admiring gaze and the slight smirk. Exchanging stories of our night cargo days we cherish the lessons that this strict school master taught us and walk away with a bit of gratification in the fact that we survived its wrath back in the day.

FMI: https://beechcraft.txtav.com/