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What airline is associated with "Blue Goose"?

republic

Good Morning! I don't know about other areas of Michigan, but one of our local meteorologists here said yesterday that mid-Michigan has been colder than normal for the last six months, including October, when the average temperature was 2 degrees colder than normal. It makes you wonder just what this coming winter will bring? Have you heard what the forecast for the winter is? Has the wooly caterpillar that we used to hear about, appeared with his fur coat, lol?

Good morning, posted a message as the board was being updated. So I think the first message was lost.

Republic!

North Central Air

Nice photos! I remember Neil's wolf in the woods shot.

Good morning! Have a great day everybody! Running late today!

North Central Airlines was always known as the "blue goose" because of it's logo - a blue goose in flight.

Hey! Republic "stole" the logo from North Central. Oh well, North Central had it first.

Well I feel a slight correction is in order. Everyone calls it the Blue Goose however it actually is intended to depict a Mallad Duck silhoutted by a Full moon. The photo was taken on the last flight I worked ending my 28 years at CMX. A sad day to say the least.

Hmmm, I thought the first post at (or after) 8:00 am was to get the Bird if the new gallery wasn't up yet??? Oh well live and learn I suppose.

I'm still a bit disappointed in the Packers yesterday as I thought they had a decent chance at picking off the Vik's. All is not lost however; anytime I can see the University of Spoiled Children lose a game like they did on Saturday night, it brings a tear of joy to my eye..... ;-)

Capt Paul's U.S.C.....too funny! LOL!

Cap't. Paul...such a game, hey? I was torn between my Packers and the great arm of Favre! Won one way and lost the other way. But at least they tried in the second half. Now we have a Packers/Bears game to look forward to next month.

Cap't Paul the first posts did get lost today, I had one at 0759 then yours at 0800 and then mine at 0800 right behind yours. All 3 got lost when it did the update.

In 1978 North Central bought Southern Airways and the merger brought about Republic Airline in 1979. Now you know the rest of the story.

I remember the first time that I flew out of the Houghton/Hancock terminal. It was with North Central Airlines and the terminal was that little bitty building that the county uses now for a jail. Round trip to Lansing was only $50 and I thought that was a lot of money. We stopped many times before we actually got to Lansing.

I too had tears of joy about the "U of Spoiled Children" loosing their game. Couldn't happen to a better team and Coach..........

Glad to read that others knew of the days when the Blue Goose was North Central Airlines. Any of you remember when they landed at the sands in Houghton?
A long time ago.
And way back when they flew DC-3s not that Convair 440.
Some referred to the DC-3 as a gooney bird, too.
Perhaps that was in the USAF--they used them a lot for some short hauls.
The C-119 was another fun airplane. 25,000 bolts flying in loose formation is what we called it.

I think the deal is after 8:00, not at 8:00. Not all of the first posts got lost today. Mine that was time stamped at 8:04, which is earlier than Charlie's question was posted, is there, but it is just listed out of order. :-)

Tom, what are you referring to when you said that North Central landed at the sands in Houghton? Was that an accident, or before the current airport opened? Where are the sands in Houghton? Inquiring minds are curious. :-)

Tom: North Central never operated out of the Sands. I't NationWide airlines. They did however use DC 3s. Actually North Central was orignally called Wisconsin Central, that name was just changed to NC when they started service from CMX in 1948. I ve got an original decal of it showing Wisconsin Central around the Mallard.

Tom------In the late 1940s my wife flew out of the Copper Country on a DC-3. No regular seats. They had sofas bolted to the floor, and if I remember corectly there was one "attendent" on board. Bumpy ride but it got her to Detroit safe and sound.

Wonderful photos, as usual.

Where was the shot of the wolf in the woods, taken?

I googled this info from a Wayne State University site. This one may have landed on the sands.

"From former Wayne University Sports Information Director (1948-57) Paul Pentecost

I am reminded of my first trip to Michigan Tech in January 1949. We flew up via a Nationwide Airlines charter out of Detroit City Airport (there was no Metro and only a few flights from Willow Run then). Nationwide was a forerunner of North Central later Northwest. The plane was a WWII converted C-47. The seats were adequate but no flight attendant, just a thermos of coffee and one of water and 2 dozen donuts. The john was a plywood throne with a bucket underneath. The pilots were still wearing their WWII flight jackets. We also had a mechanic who was wearing his WWII Air Corps coveralls with Sgt. stripes. We flew upstate and then directly into Houghton. Along the way I saw something leaking out of the right engine and asked the mechanic about it and he said, "that sometimes happens, I'll check it in Houghton." Not very re-assuring.

We started to descend but I couldn't see an airport, just lots of snow. But down we came and we landed on the snow and I noted little trees to the right and left. I found out later that they were discarded Christmas trees to mark the runway which by late January had so much snow they couldn't keep it clear and just rolled and packed it. We taxied up to a large shed (the airport center) with a large radio antenna. The mechanic opened the door and a figure appeared dressed like an Eskimo with a ladder and yelled "Welcome to Houghton." The mechanic opened the cargo holds and got out our baggage, ball bags, etc. Then he pulled out what looked like tents and small engines. It was the heaters and engine covers to keep the engines warm over night. There were cabs waiting for us and we drove in to town and stayed at the Douglass House, a Victorian era hotel with no elevator. The game was played at the new Sherman Gym. Through all of this Coach Joel Mason kept smiling an chuckling and then he said "I thought you'd all like to see the kind of winters I grew up in. Joel was a graduate of Stambaugh H.S. The mechanic stayed with the plane to keep the heaters running. The next morning there was a problem with one engine and we were told to stay in Houghton until they got it fixed. Later we heard the plane in the air and we were off to the airport. We flew from Houghton to Milwaukee where we played Marquette U.

The traveling party was AD Alden Thompson, Trainer Doc White, Coach Mason, Asst. Fred Mulhauser , myself and 12 players. After that we drove to the UP, using private cars. We never took a bus. Later we added Northern Michigan to the UP swing. Joel always was in his glory up there. After all, he was a UP'er who had played seven years in the NFL and was a successful coach. I always enjoyed the trip. Thought you'd get a chuckle out of our "charter flight." "

Also, my uncle, Ed Strong, flew up to Houghton from Detroit and landed at the sands, sometime around 1950 +/-. My family and his wife, Martha (Keranen) Strong drove there to pick him up.