My dad ran a brewery from 1937 to 1952 in La Ceiba, Honduras. La Ceiba was a "Banana Town" for Standard Fruit & Steamship Company, now DOLE. Two blocks from Hotel Paris in La Ceiba was the brewery. TACA pilots slept and frequented the bar, which resembled the old 1890's saloons with swinging doors, huge mahogany bar, brass spittoons, card tables, and of course guns, but no women. In Tegucigalpa it was the Duncan Hotel. They had great pastries.I would sit and listen to their stories and dream. "Paul when you make your next flight with your Dad we want you to ride up front with us," Captain Brice would state. Heck, I was only eight years old in 1948 and loved to start the Fords (Tri-Motors), pressing the buttons on the floor and sit on their laps and fly the plane.TACA must've had the shortest flight in the world, four minutes! You would take off from the banana town of Progresso, cross the Ulua River and land in La Lima, United Fruit Headquarters. Flaps, gear, remained down, nothing changed, and it was up and down. There were times pilots made 15-20 landings per day. No tower, no navigation aids. The Station Manager did it all, helped taxi plane, to the ramp, fueled the plane, ticketed passengers, loaded-unloaded baggage, he did it all. If there was no Station Manager, the Copilot did it all.TACA in the late 30's was the world's largest air cargo carrier. By 1946 her fleet consisted of 9 DC-3s, 17 Lodestars, up to 23 Tri-Motor Fords, Curtis Condor, 3 Beechcraft 18's, Stinson Jr. and Travel Air, the famous lifting fuselage Burnelli and a bunch of Bellancas.Honduras had few roads, on the North Coast everyone went by air or rail. Just going from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa took three days, but it was fun. Where else could a kid start in a banana plantation, ride a motor car, pass sugar cane fields, pineapples farms, ride a ferry boat on a large lake with bass fish and ducks, tall mountains, and cold nights; I loved it. From Tegucigalpa to Santa Rosa in the mountain region could take 5 days by land and on TACA just over an hour. As a teen, to go from San Pedro Sula to Puerto Cortes, we had no road, only travel by train and plane. This is why TACA was successful in those days.My log book (Captain Ahearn) records show that I flew AN-AAP on May 16, 1942, several trips to Bonanza. (This is the Tri-Motor Ford that hangs in the Smithsonian). My logbook shows I first flew Ford Tri-Motor XH-TAN, which lost its left wing and crashed from Tegucigalpa to La Ceiba on July 2, 1942 in the North Pass, also flew a test hop on a Bellanca Pacemaker, XH-TAM, in Tegucigalpa for first time on June 30th I show 450 total time, copilot only. I may have flown some trips on XH-TAN with Captain Bob Anson. I witnessed as a kid on a Sunday morning in Mazapan, La Ceiba. in my backyard as a TACA Bellanca buzzed our backyard several times then to hear it tear up coconut trees. I ran to where I heard the plane crash (XH-TAD) to see trees cut in half and bodies all around the plane. I then felt my Dad's hand telling me to get the hell out of their and head home. For a kid, I'd seen enough and went home.At the end of the runway ran a train track running from the city of San Salvador to San Miguel. Turning the DC-3 towards the runway, not able to see the train on the track, Captain Ohlwiler was preparing to touch down when he felt a heavy jolt. Being so close to the end of the runway, he proceeded to land not knowing his gear had been knocked off, ending in a belly landing.Escaping from the burning plane, all 3 crewmembers were able to get out with a few monkeys making it out but the small plane was burned with the DC-3. Looking back at the train Captain Ohlwiler could see the passenger train with most of its accessory knocked off the top of the boiler. Lucky no one was injured nor killed. Only one other incident like this ever took place and that was in China. (Book has pictures of this incident).
My dad ran a brewery from 1937 to 1952 in La Ceiba, Honduras. La Ceiba was a "Banana Town" for Standard Fruit & Steamship Company, now DOLE. Two blocks from Hotel Paris in La Ceiba was the brewery. TACA pilots slept and frequented the bar, which resembled the old 1890's saloons with swinging doors, huge mahogany bar, brass spittoons, card tables, and of course guns, but no women. In Tegucigalpa it was the Duncan Hotel. They had great pastries.I would sit and listen to their stories and dream. "Paul when you make your next flight with your Dad we want you to ride up front with us," Captain Brice would state. Heck, I was only eight years old in 1948 and loved to start the Fords (Tri-Motors), pressing the buttons on the floor and sit on their laps and fly the plane.TACA must've had the shortest flight in the world, four minutes! You would take off from the banana town of Progresso, cross the Ulua River and land in La Lima, United Fruit Headquarters. Flaps, gear, remained down, nothing changed, and it was up and down. There were times pilots made 15-20 landings per day. No tower, no navigation aids. The Station Manager did it all, helped taxi plane, to the ramp, fueled the plane, ticketed passengers, loaded-unloaded baggage, he did it all. If there was no Station Manager, the Copilot did it all.TACA in the late 30's was the world's largest air cargo carrier. By 1946 her fleet consisted of 9 DC-3s, 17 Lodestars, up to 23 Tri-Motor Fords, Curtis Condor, 3 Beechcraft 18's, Stinson Jr. and Travel Air, the famous lifting fuselage Burnelli and a bunch of Bellancas.Honduras had few roads, on the North Coast everyone went by air or rail. Just going from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa took three days, but it was fun. Where else could a kid start in a banana plantation, ride a motor car, pass sugar cane fields, pineapples farms, ride a ferry boat on a large lake with bass fish and ducks, tall mountains, and cold nights; I loved it. From Tegucigalpa to Santa Rosa in the mountain region could take 5 days by land and on TACA just over an hour. As a teen, to go from San Pedro Sula to Puerto Cortes, we had no road, only travel by train and plane. This is why TACA was successful in those days.My log book (Captain Ahearn) records show that I flew AN-AAP on May 16, 1942, several trips to Bonanza. (This is the Tri-Motor Ford that hangs in the Smithsonian). My logbook shows I first flew Ford Tri-Motor XH-TAN, which lost its left wing and crashed from Tegucigalpa to La Ceiba on July 2, 1942 in the North Pass, also flew a test hop on a Bellanca Pacemaker, XH-TAM, in Tegucigalpa for first time on June 30th I show 450 total time, copilot only. I may have flown some trips on XH-TAN with Captain Bob Anson. I witnessed as a kid on a Sunday morning in Mazapan, La Ceiba. in my backyard as a TACA Bellanca buzzed our backyard several times then to hear it tear up coconut trees. I ran to where I heard the plane crash (XH-TAD) to see trees cut in half and bodies all around the plane. I then felt my Dad's hand telling me to get the hell out of their and head home. For a kid, I'd seen enough and went home.At the end of the runway ran a train track running from the city of San Salvador to San Miguel. Turning the DC-3 towards the runway, not able to see the train on the track, Captain Ohlwiler was preparing to touch down when he felt a heavy jolt. Being so close to the end of the runway, he proceeded to land not knowing his gear had been knocked off, ending in a belly landing.Escaping from the burning plane, all 3 crewmembers were able to get out with a few monkeys making it out but the small plane was burned with the DC-3. Looking back at the train Captain Ohlwiler could see the passenger train with most of its accessory knocked off the top of the boiler. Lucky no one was injured nor killed. Only one other incident like this ever took place and that was in China. (Book has pictures of this incident).
