My brother Charles, who passed last month at 94 flew the 0-2A in Vietnam. The only thing he said to me about the 02-A was that the cockpit switches were really tiny, I goes in comparison to B-47s, B-26s and C-119s that he flew in earlier parts of his Air Force career.
@@SteveBull-tg8mi Thanks for your comment. Your brother Charles was right on point. The Skymaster had a very limited cockpit real estate. It was originally designed for civilian use, as the Cessna 337 and then later adapted to military use. This resulted in the cramping of many instruments for navigation, military radios, and even weapons systems packed on top of each other, all ergonomically collocated in a smaller space.
The Rhodesian airforce used this aircraft during the Rhodesian bush war , funny story the plane was inherited by the new Zimbabwean airforce and used in the Mozambique civil war then later in the second Congo war in 1998 mainly in Kinshasa supporting Zimbabwean SAS , Commando regiment, and the Parachute Regiment in pushing rebels out of Kinshasa, but hey it started doing the job in Vietnam in the 60’s. thanks for the great brief video.
@@stevegomez3505 The Skymaster was very popular choice for utilitarian applications like that. It was multi-engine with out the major controllability issues on a conventional twin.
The Pima County Sherrifs Office operates a Mixmaster over Tucson and its environs at night, equipped with an avionics suite tuned to discover clandestine drug labs [and before legalization, marajuana grow houses]. I call him ''Washing Machine Charlie.''
@@HootOwl513 Thanks for your comment. The Air Force retired them at Davis Monthan AFB AZ. Being a military derivative of the Civilian 337, did not take very long for them to be available for sale to civilian and state government functions. Naturally, some end up serving Law Enforcements. A large number of them end up serving overseas with military contractors abroad and some were used to support military training functions due to its low cost of operations. Many nicknames were used, suck and blow, wading duck, push-pull, oscar deuce, coming and going, but Washing Machine Charlie is new to me. Thanks for Sharing.
@@CowboysVintageWings ''Washing Machine Charlie'' is a historical reference to the Guadalcanal campaign in 1942. The Japanese flew slow and often deliberately mis-timed aircraft, at night, over the dug-in Marines -- often dropping grenades or randomly strafing -- to disrupt sleep. The Sherrif's ''Mixmaster'' was always flown at night, orbiting the metropolitan area and suburbs in a racetrack or figure 8 pattern. Sorties were around 0200 - 0400. The 337's powerplant configuration creates a unique audio signature, because the aft prop chews into disturbed air from the forward propwash. For that reason I called them Washing Machine Charlie missions. The slang term for the 337/0-2 that I recall was Mixmaster.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Love this. I took care of it in Nam 68-69. We had some great pilots. Thankfully, we didn’t lose a one the year I was there.
Joined the AF to work on this aircraft. Loved every minute of it and got plenty of right seat time too.
@@rs5360 Thanks for your service and sacrifice.
My brother Charles, who passed last month at 94 flew the 0-2A in Vietnam. The only thing he said to me about the 02-A was that the cockpit switches were really tiny, I goes in comparison to B-47s, B-26s and C-119s that he flew in earlier parts of his Air Force career.
@@SteveBull-tg8mi Thanks for your comment. Your brother Charles was right on point. The Skymaster had a very limited cockpit real estate. It was originally designed for civilian use, as the Cessna 337 and then later adapted to military use. This resulted in the cramping of many instruments for navigation, military radios, and even weapons systems packed on top of each other, all ergonomically collocated in a smaller space.
The Rhodesian airforce used this aircraft during the Rhodesian bush war , funny story the plane was inherited by the new Zimbabwean airforce and used in the Mozambique civil war then later in the second Congo war in 1998 mainly in Kinshasa supporting Zimbabwean SAS , Commando regiment, and the Parachute Regiment in pushing rebels out of Kinshasa, but hey it started doing the job in Vietnam in the 60’s. thanks for the great brief video.
@@kaisholeopard Thanks for the insight. I find the Rhodesian Civil War fascinating.
I worked for the electric company and they owned and utilized a Skymaster for highline patrol.
@@stevegomez3505 The Skymaster was very popular choice for utilitarian applications like that. It was multi-engine with out the major controllability issues on a conventional
twin.
Check out the movie Bat 21 if you like this airplane!! It’s one of my favorites 🎉🤘😉
The Pima County Sherrifs Office operates a Mixmaster over Tucson and its environs at night, equipped with an avionics suite tuned to discover clandestine drug labs [and before legalization, marajuana grow houses]. I call him ''Washing Machine Charlie.''
@@HootOwl513 Thanks for your comment. The Air Force retired them at Davis Monthan AFB AZ. Being a military derivative of the Civilian 337, did not take very long for them to be available for sale to civilian and state government functions. Naturally, some end up serving Law Enforcements. A large number of them end up serving overseas with military contractors abroad and some were used to support military training functions due to its low cost of operations. Many nicknames were used, suck and blow, wading duck, push-pull, oscar deuce, coming and going, but Washing Machine Charlie is new to me. Thanks for Sharing.
@@CowboysVintageWings ''Washing Machine Charlie'' is a historical reference to the Guadalcanal campaign in 1942. The Japanese flew slow and often deliberately mis-timed aircraft, at night, over the dug-in Marines -- often dropping grenades or randomly strafing -- to disrupt sleep. The Sherrif's ''Mixmaster'' was always flown at night, orbiting the metropolitan area and suburbs in a racetrack or figure 8 pattern. Sorties were around 0200 - 0400. The 337's powerplant configuration creates a unique audio signature, because the aft prop chews into disturbed air from the forward propwash. For that reason I called them Washing Machine Charlie missions. The slang term for the 337/0-2 that I recall was Mixmaster.
@@HootOwl513 Thanks a lot for the explanation. Very interesting historical correlation.
I’ve got a 1967 Cessna O-2A project plane that’s for sale if anyone is interested.