The Last Time was an organization created for the sole purpose
of reuniting flying examples of the Douglas DC-3 and the people
associated with them, for one last time. The goal of the
organization was to celebrate this aircraft and these people.
Twenty-six DC-3/C-47 aircraft converged at Rock Falls, Illinois for
a weekend long celebration, while over 15,000 guests visited the
airport to see these historic airplanes and meet their crews. It
was a wonderful reunion where old friends met and new friendships
developed. It is unlikely that such a gathering will ever occur
again.
Scott Glover was one of the pilots and owners who made the
sacrifice to get to Rock Falls. His C-47 has an extraordinary
history... This aircraft was built as a C-47-DL sn 42-32832 and
delivered to the U.S. Army Air Force on February 11, 1943. It was
assigned to the 53rd Troop Carrier Squadron and on May 4, 1943
Secret orders were received: "...proceed in aircraft as indicated
from Morrison Field, West Palm Beach, Florida via Marreckech,
French Morocco, North Africa to Western Task Force, reporting upon
arrival there to the Commanding General, North African Theater of
Operations for duty and assignment." 42-32832 successfully dropped
18 Paratroopers on June 6, 1944 during the D-Day invasion with no
casualties. But by June 6th, three of the paratroopers dropped were
killed in action. 42-32832 is the only surviving C-47 from the
original 13 that formed the 53rd Troop Carrier Squadron.
By July 16, 1945 this aircraft had made it back to the United
States where it was assigned registration number NC75412 and
converted to a DC-3C by the Executive Transport Corporation. After
conversion the aircraft was sold to General Motors, Inc., in
Detroit, Michigan, where it was assigned a new registration number,
N5106. In May 1967, the aircraftft was re-registered as N5106X and
during November 1967, it was donated to the Board of Trustees,
Southern Illinois University, at Carbondale, Illinois who installed
a 24-passenger configuration.
The aircraft was sold to Henry Oliver III (Santa Fe, NM) in July
1985 and attended the EXPO 86 DC-3 fly-in at Abbotsford, Canada.
Henry sold it to Bygon Aviation where it was flown on a 135
certificate for a short period of time. It was then sold to the
David Nickolas Organ Donor Awareness Foundation Inc and operated by
heart transplant recipient, Rodney DeBaun.
Glover bought the plane from Rodney on August 4, 2000 and built
a grass strip and hanger for it (XS70) in Mt. Pleasant Texas. A
second new engine has recently been installed and the airframe
currently has just over 18,000 flight hours on the newly painted
airframe.