DOUGLAS DC-8 'ABOUT ME'

My Original Interest In the DC-8, Travels on the DC-8 and
My Personal History of Model Collecting - From 1972 to the Present

My interest in the DC-8 developed at an early age (before 10 years old). My father was interested in airplanes and he used to take me to watch the 'new' jets take off in Portland, Oregon in the early 1960s. He always loved the Douglas airliners and this must have 'rubbed off' on me. I love all of the first generation jets but the "sleekness" of the standard DC-8, and even more so with the 'stretch' DC-8, plus the nose air scoops really appealed to me. I also grew to love the Douglas DC-9s, which was the only jetliner that operated out of the airport near my home town in Washington State. During junior high and high school I mowed lawns to save money so I could fly down to southern California to visit my big brother & also my cousins in Las Vegas. During the early 1970s, the airlines had a great program for students under 18 years old, in which you paid 50% of the fare and flew standby. This was also know as 'student standby' and this enabled me to travel, whereas I would have never been able to afford to travel at the full fare back then. For each of these trips I studied the OAG (Official Airline Guide) and planned as many flights on the DC-8 as possible out of either Seattle or Portland, connecting in San Francisco to get to LAX, Ontario and LAS. With these connections I was sometimes able to fly the DC-8 on 4 legs of the trip. In addition, to get to Seattle or Portland, I flew on West Coast/Air West/Hughes Airwest DC-9s - which was an ideal combination of jetliners for me! (Near the bottom of this page is a table of all of my DC-8 flights)

It was during high school that I began to collect airplane models, but only those which were professionally made because I didn't have a creative bone in my body to build models from scratch - and I still don't. First, I started collecting Aero Minis & of course my favorite was the Aero Mini Eastern DC-8-61 Model! Next, I started to visit the airline sales offices in Seattle and was fortunate to buy my first "Travel Agent" size model from UTA French Airlines in October, 1972 - a 1/100 Scale UTA DC-8-32 plastic model made in France. In 1973, on one of my trips down to southern California I met some other collectors who were into the large scale models (please see the acknowledgements of them below). I also got to know the people at "Marketing Aids Inc.," which was the company who made most, if not all, of the models for Douglas / McDonnell Douglas at that time. Once I saw a 'Douglas Factory' DC-8 Model I knew that this was the future of my model collecting so I sold off my complete Aero Mini collection in 1973 and, at 17 years old, began collecting these beautiful Douglas Factory Polished Aluminum Models in 1/72 & 1/50 Scales. In 1973 I established a goal of someday having a professionally made, travel agent style model (metal preferred but not required) of each of the 44 Original Delivery Customers of the DC-8. At that time I typed up a chart showing each of those 44 airlines and the DC-8 Variants they flew. Once I found a DC-8 model of one of those airlines I would update my chart and type up a separate page with the details about that model - such as scale, livery, who it was made by, who I acquired it from, and any other particulars I could find out about the model. How's that for being obsessed and/or "anal retentive" at 17 years old!
If You Would Like To See A Few Pictures From This Early Period In My Life Please Click Here.

During college at Washington State University I entered the ROTC program to hopefully become an Air Force pilot and later, an airline pilot. Unfortunately, this was not to be, due to my eyesight not being a perfect 20/20 which was required at that time. Thus I graduated from college with a business degree and although I couldn't become a pilot, I was determined to work for the airlines in some way. Fortunately, in my last year of college I got a lucky break and a little head start in the airline business by working, on weekends & during summer break, for a little commuter airline named Execuair and later renamed Columbia Pacific Airlines. Working for that little airline whose home base was in my home town of Richland, Washington, not only provided me with some great experience but also left me with some of the fondest memories I have of working for the airlines in general.

A few months after college graduation in 1978, I went to work for Western Airlines in Palm Springs, California. At Western I worked most all of the ground jobs - ramp, operations, passenger service, lost and found, etc. During my 'tenure' at Western I worked in Palm Springs, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento and Salt Lake City. On April 1, 1987 Western was acquired by Delta Air Lines which was lucky for all of us who worked at Western because Delta had an excellent reputation with its employees. I continued working on the ground for Delta in supervisory positions until 1994 when I took an early retirement. Delta was really a "First Class" airline to work for & I really hope they can survive after 9/11 forever changed the airline business. At times, I still miss working for each of these airlines and have many fond memories of working for each one of them.

During the 25 years after high school my model collecting was minimal due to a lack of money during college and then a big desire to travel a lot while working for the airlines. Another big obstacle to collecting models during the 1970s-1990s was that it was difficult to meet other collectors and the only ways of keeping in contact back then was telephone or "snail mail." Unfortunately, during this time I wasn't aware of the airline shows that were taking place all around the country where model collectors could meet and buy/sell/trade their models. During this period I added only a few Western and Delta models to my collection and I had pretty much given up on trying to find DC-8 models of the 44 Original Delivery Customers.

It wasn't until the late 1990s, with the advent of the Internet, email and web sites devoted to model collecting, and of course eBay - all of which created so many more opportunities for model collecting - that I became reinvigorated in the hobby. It was wonderful to be excited about model collecting again and I even envisioned actually finding a model of those 44 DC-8 Original Delivery Customers! As of January 1, 1997 I had 16 of the 44 which left 28 of them to find. On July 3, 2000 I finally reached that original goal from 1973 and had a DC-8 model of each of the "Original 44" in various scales (from 1/500 to 1/35 scale) and compositions (metal, plastic, wooden, etc.).

Having reached the goal from 1973 I "dared to dream bigger" and established a new goal of having a Large Scale Metal Model (1/100 scale or larger), preferably a Douglas Factory Type Metal Model, of the "Original 44." I wasn't sure if it could be done because of the rarity of some of the DC-8 variants in metal, especially the -62 & -63. Of course, the other big obstacle was availability of decals, especially those from airlines that had long since ceased to exist (fortunately I had stored some original Douglas decals back in 1973 but I wasn't sure if these were usable or not). To my good fortune and with the help of some great friends everything seemed to fall into place and as of June 13, 2005 that dream has now come true.

Most importantly, without the following friends I could have never accomplished these goals: First, two people from the 1970s who got me started in model collecting - Tom Hollywood & Monty James. Because of Tom I was able to establish contacts with Marketing Aids & the folks at McDonnell Douglas who were in charge of the Douglas Aircraft Model Inventory. I got a couple of my first Douglas Factory DC-8s in trades with Tom and when I was visiting my brother in Southern California Tom & I would plane watch at LAX and at the McDonnell Douglas Delivery Line. By 1972/73 there were only DC-10s on the delivery line but it was still a big thrill for me! Monty was not only a collector of models but he also beautifully finished off models in his garage and sold them at his shop called "Meridian Aircraft Models" located near LAX. Many of the models in my collection during this early period came from Monty. Sadly, I was short-sighted and sold or traded nearly all of them away.
Both of these guys & their families were exceptionally generous to this 17 year old "hick" from Washington & really inspired me to get into model collecting!

Present day there are many people to thank: Jim Powroznik who has finished off many of my models with some very old decals & repaired some others. Don Stephens at Airborne Replicas who arranged to have quite a few of my metal models painted by hand in the Philippines when no decals were available. If Don & his company hadn't been able to do these models for me I would have never reached either goal because original decals are too hard to find and having new decals made is too expensive. Roger, Carol & Betsy Jarman at Atlantic Models who finished off several rare DC-8 schemes for me plus made great resin models of many of today's DC-8 operators. Gary Field who helped me not only with parts for the old Douglas Metal Models but also for casting 10 complete 1/50 scale DC-8 aluminum blanks (unfinished models), using original fuselages and wings that I had, and thus enabling me to complete my collection of the Original Delivery Customers in Large Scale Metal. Also, Joe at J & A Brass Polishing for doing the finest metal polishing I have ever seen & for turning a few "lost cause" metal blanks back into the shining beauties that they were intended to be. Finally, I want to thank my collector friends (in alphabetical order) Al P, Anthony L, Dan W, Ferry vdG, Frank S, Ira K, John A, John J, Joon-Ho L, Lenny P, Marcel vdW, Michael L, Peter J, Ron K, Ruben B. & Steve S. I didn't include your last names because I wasn't sure if you would want this. Finally, last but not least, thanks to my ex-partner Bob for helping me repair & restore several of my models and for putting up with this hobby in general.
Without all of your great business & personal friendships I never could have never reached my dreams!

Looking forward, I plan to continue collecting DC-8 models (especially rare or exotic schemes) and a few more DC-9s as well, but perhaps not as actively as in the past. More importantly, I plan to continue expanding this web site to include more and more information about the
Great Douglas Eight!

Listed Below Are My Travels On The Douglas DC-8
(Not exactly extensive or impressive but I thoroughly enjoyed each one of them!)

DATE	AIRLINE	DC-8 TYPE	REG. #	FLIGHT/ CLASS	FROM	TO	MILES	REMARKS
16JUL1971	UNITED	61	UNKN	295/Y	PORTLAND	SAN FRANCISCO	550	--
16JUL1971	UNITED	61	UNKN	58/K	SAN FRANCISCO	LOS ANGELES	340	--
02AUG1971	UNITED	51	UNKN	598/Y	LOS ANGELES	PORTLAND	834	--
16JUN1972	UNITED	51	UNKN	295/Y	PORTLAND	SAN FRANCISCO	550	--
07JUN1973	UNITED	62H	N8974U	487/Y	PORTLAND	ONTARIO	836	DIVERTED TO ONT DUE TO LAX FOG.
01JUL1973	UNITED	62H	N8974U	458/Y	LOS ANGELES	SEATTLE	954	--
01APR1977	UNITED	61	N8081U	487/Y	PORTLAND	LOS ANGELES	834	--
10APR1977	UNITED	61	N8070U	522/K	LOS ANGELES	SAN FRANCISCO	340	VERY HARD LANDING DUE TO WINDS
10APR1977	UNITED	21	N8037U	288/Y	SAN FRANCISCO	SEATTLE	679	A BIG THRILL TO FLY THE -21 (NON-FANJET)
26MAR1978	UNITED	61	N8094U	331/Y	SEATTLE	OAKLAND	672	--
26MAR1978	UNITED	61	N8094U	331/Y	OAKLAND	SAN FRANCISCO	12	DIDN'T EVEN RAISE THE LANDING GEAR!
26MAR1978	UNITED	61	N8099U	2/K	SAN FRANCISCO	LOS ANGELES	340	--
30SEP1978	UNITED	61	N8088U	167/F	DENVER	PORTLAND	983	FIRST CLASS ON THE DC-8 - CAN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!
11DEC1978	UNITED	61	N8098U	398/F	SAN FRANCISCO	SEATTLE	679	--
03DEC1979	UNITED	62H	N8968U	69/F	SAN JOSE	HONOLULU	2415	IT JUST GOT BETTER - DC-8 FIRST CLASS TO HAWAII!
04DEC1979	UNITED	62H	N8970U	68/Y	HONOLULU	SAN JOSE	2415	A/C HILO HATTIE
21JAN1987	DELTA	71	N1304L	829/F	NEWARK	ATLANTA	755	--
08MAR1989	DELTA	71	N1302L	264/Y	ATLANTA	ATLANTA	100	RETURNED TO ATL DUE TO ENGINE FAILURE
08MAR1989	DELTA	71	N1303L	264/Y	ATLANTA	BALTIMORE	576	A/C SUBSTITUTED & WE'RE OFF AGAIN
08MAR1989	DELTA	71	N1303L	937/F	BALTIMORE	ATLANTA	576	TO BWI & BACK TO FLY THE DC-8 ONE LAST TIME BEFORE DL RETIRED THEM!

Summary Of My DC-8 Flights

DC-8 TYPE	NUMBER FLIGHTS	TOTAL MILES
DC-8-21	1	679
DC-8-51	2	1384
DC-8-61	9	4750
DC-8-62H	4	6620
DC-8-71	4	2007
TOTALS	20	15440

I wish now that I had made a lot more effort to fly on the DC-8 when I had the opportunities while working for the airlines. Oh well, youth and hindsight are many times at odds with each other. So, that's my story. I hope it was written well enough so as not to be boring.

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