OAKLAND, Calif. — For Les Good, it was the chance to ride in the kind of plane he flew in Japan just after World War II and, later, as a pilot for United Airlines.
For Brad Wormood, a generation or so younger than Good, it was a chance to fly in the plane that inspired him to get his pilot's license as a 14-year- old living just outside Chicago in the late 1940s.
For Jeffrey Perdue, younger still, it was the chance to put Wormood's dream into practice.
What they have in common is a love for "the grand old lady of aviation," the DC-3, at one time the ruler of the skies and still regarded as one of the greatest airplanes ever built.
It has been years since a twin-propeller DC-3 was used in passenger aviation - old age and faster, more economical, jets made them obsolete. Nonetheless, passengers are once again flying a particular DC-3 on an aerial sightseeing journey around the San Francisco Bay area. That's what brought these three men - Perdue as pilot, Good and Wormood as passengers - along with 15 others to the North Field at Oakland International Airport on a recent afternoon.
The group was gathered for an hour-long flight in a beautifully preserved, nearly new DC-3 that is flown by Sentimental Journeys, a company owned by the Otis Spunkmeyer cookie people.
VIEW OF THE BAY
Decked out in classic '30s and '40s decor - including a two-man flight crew and a stewardess (they weren't known as flight attendants in those days) in period airline outfits - Sentimental Journeys offers passengers a close-up view of the Bay Area in a plane flying at just 1,500 to 2,000 feet and at merely 150 m.p.h. The plane circles San Francisco, up to Stinson Beach in Marin County and over to the East Bay.
The journey also offers a chance to relive the time when flying was a more elegant, exclusive experience. Passengers sit in plush, comfortable, well- padded armchairs with enough leg room to satisfy Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There are also two couches, each seating three, one on each side of the front of the cabin.
Music from the '30s and '40s plays on the speaker system as the plane takes off and lands. During the flight, stewardess Sue Bartell lavishes attention on each passenger, serving tasty hors d'oeuvres and drinks - wine, champagne or soft drinks. Not surprisingly, each passenger also receives a bag of Otis Spunkmeyer cookies.
In short, there is none of the crowding or plastic that typifies today's commercial airliners.
