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They have two Curtiss C-46 from 1945. Its interesting that its cheaper to continue to pay for the maintenance and fuel than lease something more modern.


Replacements don’t exist. Those old prop liners can operate off unimproved dirt strips, grass, even snow and ice - and off short runways too.

Jets don’t like that.

For back country missions the only thing maybe better than a DC-3 is a Basler... and that is a modernized DC-3 with reinforcements and turboprops for more power. They suck a lot more fuel than a plain DC3 though, which can be problematic as some of these fields they have to fly fuel in.


A C130 should be a viable modern alternative for those use cases, if economic


A fully loaded DC-3 can takeoff in just over 2000ft. A C-130 needs almost 4000ft.


There are no small planes that can replace DC-3. C-130 is massive!




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