When we got up that friday morning, 30May08, it appeared the sombre, gloomy weather of recent days had followed us. The weather had certainly gone up and down here in past weeks as I had seen images on tv of intense firefighting activity in Northern California.
We drove to Santa Rosa's Charles M. Schulz - Sonoma County Airport (IATA: STS, ICAO: KSTS; the airport is named after Charles M. Schulz, the famed cartoonist of the Peanuts comic strip, who lived and worked in Santa Rosa for more than 30 years), to have a look at the Pacific Coast Air Museum. Unfortunately, the information on the website was confirmed: it was closed on fridays.

I had a look at the main entrance of the airport and noticed this Grumman HU-16C Albatross parked near a hangar. This is N9131 G-333, ex/ BuNo.131904. This photo was taken from an office next to a hangar in which I also got a glimpse from a Twin Beech.
I asked at the FBO (seen here in the background) to get ramp access but this was denied. I later realized they might have misunderstood me for Pictures of those expensive jets as I remembered something about 'client confidentiality'... Oh well.

A company called Aerocrafters operates a restoration and maintenance facility here, working primarily on warbirds and in particular the HU-16 Albatross. Three HU-16s were bought from the Brazilian Air Force in 1996 of which only two were ferried to the US (N98HU & N99HU).
But a number of Albatross owners have based their aircraft here to take advantage of Aerocrafter's facilty.

Grumman HU-16C Albatross N43155 (cn G-423) sits in the middle of the airfield, hidden from sight except from here. A good thing we drove all around this airport (had to drive the same way back, we couldn't go full circle it seems).

It is an ex/ US Navy bird (141276).
N43155 was registered on 13Sep91 to Grant Engineering & Manufacturing of Richmond,CA but this seems no longer valid.

Jim Long wrote me the following update in Jan.2009...
"The Short Solent flying boat at Oakland's Western Aerospace Museum a.k.a. (renamed) Oakland Aviation Museum, is owned by the owner of N43155.
Rick Grant, of Grant Engineering, Richmond, CA owns the Solent aircraft, along with his brother Randy.
Rick still owns the HU-16 solely. The brother, Randy, had been a partner but is no longer.
Rick and Randy had bought the Solent with the idea of flying it to the South Pacific... In the early 1970's Lloyd Hamilton, who had owned a Hawker Sea Fury FB 11 (also on the Sonoma County Airport) with a Bristol Centaurus sleeve valved engine, was familiar with the Bristol engines on the Solent. Lloyd inspected the airframe of the Solent at the request of Rick and Randy Grant. He told them there was no way this aircraft would fly to the South Pacific due to the vast amount of work that was needed to repair the corrosion throughout the airframe and getting parts for those Bristol engines...
This plane had been used in the opening scenes of the first Raiders of the Lost Ark movie.
Rick and Randy then decided a Grumman HU-16 would be more better suited for South Pacific flights, as parts are readily available and they are a great flyer."

131594/RT, Douglas C-118A (c/n 43697) N777SQ (belongs to the museum here). Airliners.net 131594
Btw, two DC-6's wore N777SQ as a tailnumber, c/n 44071 from 1975 - 1979 and c/n 43697 from 1982 - present. Thanks Aad!

Nicely done up and seen august 2013 by Roger Botting on Photos by Friends & Guests (38)

Douglas DC-3-DST N139D (c/n 2165) has been suggested as a candidate, but the tailnumber (close up) is different. N139D is still current on FAA's N-inquiry page, registered to Lee Schaller on 15Aug84.
During the 1990s I saw it at nearby Schellville Airport (23982 Arnold Drive), where Google Maps still shows it, but I guess I overlooked it upon my May08 visit!

What is more, this is no DC-3-DST: N139D has the door on the righthand side. Any other suggestions...?

Alexandre Avrane (ATDB.org) suggested:

N.b. The former is a C-47 while the latter is a DC-3-201C. So N25641 seems probable...

Aad van der Voet (Oldwings.nl) replied to this:
"N25641 has Viewmaster windows, and the rear door is a bottom-hinged passenger door. The one in Ruud's photo has normal windows, and the rear door is a big cargo door, with hinges on the left and right side. It's not N25641!
But N25646 does seem to fit. Also, I can't find any other candidates..."

My database shows N25646 was registered to Rich's Flying Service Inc (Newport,OR) on 07Mar06. But I found no website of this company in order to facilitate inquiries. So confirmation would be welcomed!

UPDATE¬ Found DC-3A N25646 (c/n 2234) for sale in July 2020 on Controller.com "This DC-3 was operated by central Iowa airlines as a passenger aircraft. It was later converted to a freighter aircraft.
It has dual cargo doors, cargo floor, parachute jump door, gill liner interior, an interior power cargo winch and heavy landing gear. The aircraft was later fitted with 8 passenger seats. Some spare parts and support equipment are included. Part 125 R.F.S. progressive maintenance program.
The many logbooks and progressive maintenance binders are available for inspection at the airplane's location in Santa Rosa, CA."
UPDATE¬ 'N25646 Douglas DC-3A built in 1941 at Cincinnati-Lunken (LUK) was registered to Justice Air Inc at Republic Airport, Farmingdale, NY (FRG) 16Aug23.
It was ferried from Chino, CA (CNO) in March 2024, via Oklahoma.
This DC-3A had been stored in good condition in Santa Rosa, CAfor a number of years.
Justice Air provides on-demand aircraft charter, aircraft maintenance, as well as aircraft management.'

Links:
www.HU-16.com

The Road Goes On... back to US Southwest 2008