Ruben Alconero and I came to American Airlines in 1999, we met in the training center that summer. We have remained friends and even got to fly together on the Boeing 777 to South America. The summer of 99 also introduced me to Project 7 Alpha when I saw a couple of old plaques and pictures on the wall of the training center’s entry. That old memorabilia provided the genesis for my Aviator Series of historical novels. Ruben shares my love of old aircraft, aerobatics and writing.

[image error] My first novel, based on Project 7 Alpha, AA’s secret mission in WW2

Below is his article on flying the C-47, the military version of the venerable DC-3. A pivotal aircraft that is still flying commercially nearly nine decades after its first flight. The DC-3 is also historically tied to American Airlines, CR Smith (AA’s first President) personally set the design requirements with Donald Douglas. So, here is a how to fly right out of the pages of my books:

Learning to fly the C47 (Part I)
by Captain Ruben Alconero

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(This Article 1st appeared on the NWM Facebook Page)
As current events leave me home bound I made a cup of coffee
and hesitantly decided to organize my den. A small box in a
drawer revealed jewels from long ago. Pictures from the mid
1980s, when I first learned to fly. A weathered letter from my cur-
rent employer, extending an offer to join their pilot ranks over two
decades in the past, that logo now in the history books. Buried in
one of four logbooks, folded neatly as if I were hiding it from
someone laid an application to add a type rating to my ATP. I
paused a second and then pulled out my current certificate and
thought about how the years had quickly vanished, yet I vividly
remembered each rating and where I was in this journey of life.

As pilots we are often asked “what is your favorite airplane” or “ what is the coolest aircraft you have flown?” I always found that hard to answer as each aircraft held a special place in my heart, each training event and flying afforded me the opportunity to meet new people and see
different parts of the globe. Cherished in my memory are sights most will never see.

777 at sunset

A sun rise over the Atlantic, the Northern Lights over the Aleutian Islands. Sunsets over Patagonia, the breath taking beauty of the Andes, and immense vastness of the Amazon. The country side of Upstate NY at 5,000 feet and the Rocky Mountains at Flight Level 410. Each moment special, each picture vividly stored in my heart.

Boeing 727-200

I remember the awe of walking around a Boeing 727 back in mid 90s. I was a young twenty something flight engineer flying night freight for a small cargo company, but I thought I had won the lottery in life. Twenty years later I would preflight a Boeing 777 with the same amazement and grin that I have been unable to wipe from face since those early teenage years.

[image error]737 at sunrise

Even the Boeing 737 which I fly today is so very special. It is
the first command position I assumed at my airline, the first
commercial jet I would become an instructor on, teaching the
next generation after me.

My entire professional flying history, condensed on two lines of letters and numbers that would mean nothing to most people, lay
in my hand, the size of a credit card. The greenish piece of plastic is adorned with Boeing, Airbus and Douglas ratings I have
worked so hard to obtain through the years. Each with its own story, during different chapters of my life. One stands out over all the others….

I sipped another cup of coffee and gazed out the window into the early afternoon . Wind blowing through the trees, small puffy cumulus clouds making their way through the sky as if they had somewhere to go.
I closed my eyes and saw a long grass strip nestled in the heart of Upstate NY. The smell aviation fuel, the black oil that stubbornly adorned itself to the cowling of the engines. The gust locks now removed and the ailerons wanting to flutter in the Spring breeze.

I climbed up the aft stairs and walked towards the cockpit. It was
hard not to imagine all the pilots that had walked this same path
before me. Different circumstances, different missions, and different feelings I truly can not imagine.

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Ruben in the right seat

I have mentioned before it is hard not to hear the ghosts from decades past. The paratroopers that jumped, the lives that were lost, and the ones that returned home. The men that were carried, the stories they passed on to their children, and children’s children.

I paused for a second and listened to the wind whistle around the fuselage, then slowly continued to walk up front. I settled in the seat and stared out the window, I had that grin again, the one I had as a teenager learning to fly all those years ago, the one I had as new Boeing pilot starting my career.

35 years after my first flight lesson, 5 airlines and 9 type ratings, I was getting ready to train on one of the most special aircraft I have had the privilege to fly, or most likely ever fly……

Clear to start two…

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About Ruben Alconero:
Ruben is a B737 Captain for Ameri-
can Airlines, having flown for AA the
past 21 years. Ruben lives in Roch-
ester (NY) and is married to Lee Al-
conero, a corporate flight attendant.
He has 3 children, all in college.
Ruben was introduced to the NWM
when he met Chris Polhemus while
teaching USAirways pilots how to
use Americans bidding and flight
planning software in Charlotte dur-
ing the airlines merger. He has been
a member for 5 years.
“I knew I wanted to fly for the airlines since I was 5 years
old. I took my first official flight lesson at age 12.”
Chris Polhemus (L) and Ruben
“This was after my solo on my
16th birthday. It’s customary to
cut the shirttail after you solo.”
Boeing 737 cockpit at night
(More from
Reuben in future
newsletters)

Ruben will be back as a guest poster for the second half of, flying the C-47. I’m also anxiously awaiting his next Flight Test article…a tease, it’s an aircraft from WW1.

For me this is what the aviation world is all about. I look forward to the next phase in my aviation life. Phase-1 was as a Naval Aviator, a Tailhooker and “Fleet Bubba” charging around the world with my hair on fire. Flight Test was Phase-2, while I was still a Naval Aviator, it was quite different and I learned new skills. There was a Phase-2A, and I must admit to this day it is the most fun I’ve had in aviation. Adversary pilot, half of the flying we did at at VX-30 was chase the Fleet around in our old F-4 Phantoms. We got run through an Adversary course at Top Gun and then turned loose to terrorize the Task Forces getting ready to deploy. A fighter pilots dream and the most edge of the envelope and fun flying I had in my career.

[image error]F-4N Phantom II/153030

Phase-3 has been flying the Line; I was a “Freight-Dog” at Kitty Hawk before settling in at American Airlines. Phase-3A, being an Aviation/Military Advisor on various movies and TV shows. The peak event being our documentary: Discovery’s Curiosity Series: PLANE CRASH. It was a family and friends event, I had two of my sons and a nephew on set as well as a bunch of friends from various stages of my career. I also started writing and this will be my Phase-4 as I write full time and tour air shows doing book signings. It will still be a few years before I step from the Captain seat at AA for the last time (unless things get even uglier post COVID19) but I do look forward to it.

[image error]Author with his CJ-6A Nanchang

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