Abandoned Airplanes: Southern Arizona, Season 2, Episode 3

On this episode of Abandoned Airplanes we travel to three non-towered airports in the Phoenix-Tucson area of Southern Arizona. We come across the shocking burned remains of a Cessna 414A, find an Ameriflight boneyard, discover the mother load of Lockheed C-130 parts, along with many other interesting finds.

Please help us find the history on these aircraft and hopefully help find new homes for the restoration and return to flight! We need your help!

Aircraft in this episode & viewer submitted details:

Cessna 414A - Hangar fire (Ref: L. Portouw)
Diamond DA-40 - Was removed from Benson by a flat bed truck (Ref: L. Portouw)
Luscombe 8A -
Douglas DC-3 (N34AH) -
Lockheed C-130 (N119TG) -

Piper PA-31s (N27426, N27677, N59820) - N59820 flown by Ellis Chernoff both in scheduled passenger service, charter, and cargo for Air Carolina. She was then known as "Carolina One"

C-119 Flying Boxcar (N15501) - manufactured by Fairchild Aircraft Company in 1968 and was formerly owned by Hawkins & Powers of Greybull, Wyoming. Hawkins and Power's, once renowned for their aerial firefighting aircraft, flew N15501 to Africa to film the opening sequences of the 2004 remake of the film Flight of the Phoenix. Three other ex USMC C-119Fs were used in various wreck scenes. (Thanks to Kevin Hedspeth)

The C-119 Flying Boxcar (N15501) has the logo painted on of the fake 'Amacore Oil' company from the movie, "Flight of the Phoenix" (2004). That plane was last flown ~2007?

The [2004] film is a remake of the 1965 film of the same name, both based on the 1964 novel The Flight of the Phoenix, by Elleston Trevor, about a group of people who survive an aircraft crash in the Gobi Desert and must build a new aircraft out of the old one to escape. It stars Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Tyrese Gibson, Miranda Otto and Hugh Laurie. (Thanks to Emmanuel Goldstein)

Filmed in 2020. Copyright (c) All Rights Reserved 2020

[lenmilbyer]

I rode along with 30 other Marines in a C-130 from K-Bay Hawaii to Chu Lai VN. Sat on a sling seat with a jeep bouncing against my knees the entire way. Never once over all that water did I feel fear. Those engines lulled me to sleep and kept me safe. Great plane, Great pilots.

[emmanuelgoldstein]

@32:50 The C-119 Flying Boxcar (N15501) has the logo painted on of the fake 'Amacore Oil' company from the movie, "Flight of the Phoenix" (2004). That plane was last flown ~2007?

N15501 was manufactured by Fairchild Aircraft Company in 1968 and was formerly owned by Hawkins & Powers of Greybull, Wyoming. Now part of the Lauridsen Collection at the Buckeye Municipal Airport, February 2010.

The [2004] film is a remake of the 1965 film of the same name, both based on the 1964 novel The Flight of the Phoenix, by Elleston Trevor, about a group of people who survive an aircraft crash in the Gobi Desert and must build a new aircraft out of the old one to escape. It stars Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Tyrese Gibson, Miranda Otto and Hugh Laurie.

Most of Hawkins and Powers aircraft were sold off years ago. My son and I visited the Greybull airport just before the auction. We were given permission to climb on anything we wanted. 119's, KC 97's, A couple of Privateers one that has now been restored. It was airplane lovers heaven!

[besiktasim]

From Austria, i have been there for my flight training and i love it. Great Content !

[elijahwoodward]

The other aircraft (the C-123, DC-3, etc...) at Buckeye are privately owned by a collector who has been in discussions with the City of Buckeye to open a possible air museum at the airport. If you go out there early on a Saturday and bring a few dollars for a donation, you can get a tour inside the hangar from the extremely nice caretaker who has a ton of cool and crazy stories. The good folks at Buckeye Skydive also know the folks over there and they're all good people.

Absolutely amazing history tucked away in there.

[indyscubadiver]

The 414A used to belong to my family, this happened LONG after we sold it.. no idea what happened, but it makes me physically sick to see our old bird in that condition.

[pwrplnt]

Arizona definitely has some badass aircraft boneyards! I'd love to walk through some of the larger ones!

[bdr]

Hawkins and Powers was an aerial firefighting company they used to contract bombers to the North Carolina forestry service where my father was a seat pilot and a lead plane pilot and he also flew the support plane witch was a DC-3 I remember in the late 70s and early 80s the bombers that came here from Hawkins and Powers was b-17s they had the only still flying pb4y i uesd to play in it and still have pictures of it sitting on the ramp in Kinston NC they used to bring cases of Coors beer to the guys at the forestry serves every year when they would come, it was a dream growing up around all these great airplanes and all the amazing pilots like my dad

[edilbertosantana]

Great CONTENT. Very Nice Thanks. I have being flying a DC 3 in 1958 from North East Brazil to Rio ...and a Constellation. I love this VIDEO....-- From Sweden.

[geraldmartsy]

Juan Browne from Blancolirio is the guy to ask about Luscombe quirks and features!

[ellischernoff]

I flew N27677 when it was brand new with a plush executive interior. I also flew N59820 both in scheduled passenger service, charter, and cargo for Air Carolina. She was then known as "Carolina One"

[bikepig]

The PBY is the one used in Aways the A-26 that Richard Dreyfuss flew was also there at one time. The C-119 was used in the remake of flight of the Phoenix

[MENSA.lady]

The 414 fire was quite recent. It was noted by me in service at Chicago O'Hare on August 1st. 2022. At that time operated by Lauren Aviation LLC.

[jonb]

Wow! A DC3! Ever since I learned to fly it has been my dream to fly a DC3.

[cjdriver]

Your commentary about the AMF PA31s and the experience both they and the pilots have was enjoyed and pretty spot on. Interviewed with them at PHX, trained at Burbank. Flew for them for a year as my first non-CFI job coming from AZ and put in 800 hours in those Chieftains based at Portland PDX and Seattle BFI. Amazing experience but required a very steep learning curve from the conservative world of flight schools. The saying was “why do we check the weather, we’re going anyway”….and that was about right. Flew in EVERYTHING because you’re not going to scare the boxes. Pacific NW weather was IMC and icing all the time it seemed. I don’t think I’ll ever be as IFR proficient as those days hand-flying ILS approaches to minimums 5x/day on the worst weather days with just dual navs, a DME, and an ADF. Most of those PA31s, the only “digital” avionics was the DME readout. Analog everything else. Thx for documenting them!

[Gator_Bait_Motorsports]

The item in question on top of the aft fuselage of the Luscombe 8A, is the fuel tank cap with a raised vent tube. The 8A 's fuel tank was behind the cockpit. The 8E model with metal wings had two 12.5 gallon tanks in each wing, and no rear fuselage tank.

[joestephan]

My father flew C-130s in & out of every dirt landing strip in Vietnam so it's sad for me to see them all cut up.

[thesunrisechannel]

Great to see you back with the latest installment...now with narration! Back in the day my friend Bill Drake was the Piper dealer at Carson City, NV. He was a real seat of the pants "pilot's pilot"...teaching me about crazy canyon flying in his J3 Cub...and many other "risky" flying adventures. My favorite was a trip from Carson City to Barra de Navidad in the state of Colima, Mexico...in one of his Navajo's...as part of a group of 4 planes. On the return trip we flew to Ciudad Obregon, an industrial town, for our overnight stay. Next morning while waiting on the ramp for fuel, with a King Air...one of 2, with a group of wild TX oilmen, we found ourselves lagging pesos with them against a line on the tarmac. On the homeward bound trip I was in the right seat...clearing Customs in Calexico and with half of the flight at night...flying alongside live fire military training and other amusements along the way...love night flying! The Navajo was as solid as it gets...a great and stable performer...a real pleasure to fly.Thanks to Bill Drake also for teaching me about severe crosswind landing conditions at one of the worst crosswind fields in the US. Keep up the great work!

[gb]

For the diamond DA20
The main landing gear touched down on the runway surface first and as soon as the nose lowered, they heard a loud noise. The PUI held the control stick aft in an attempt to keep the nose up as the airspeed was slowing, but they soon heard the strut scraping along the runway.

[DELTA]

The Delta air lines museum flew the DC7 out of coolidge that had been there forever.