Air Carolina, Part 2

By Ellis M. Chernoff

All Photos by the Author

Air Carolina, along with a number of other “Commuter Airlines”, entered into marketing agreements with major trunk air carriers. While some adopted the branding of the major, such as Allegheny, others retained their independent identity. Air Carolina offered ticketing and baggage on connections with all of the carriers operating at Charlotte Douglas Airport (CLT), but the closest relationship was with Eastern Airlines. Over ninety percent of Air Carolina’s passengers would be making connections with Eastern.

At the time, Eastern operated five banks of flights to and from major cities from a regional hub at CLT.  Oddly enough, these arrival and departure times dictated the published schedules of Air Carolina flights from Florence, S.C., and Hickory, N.C. The minimum connection times for a published connecting flight was 30 minutes. Therefore, the Air Carolina flight must be scheduled to arrive 30 minutes before the first departing Eastern Airlines flight. Likewise, the Air Carolina departure from CLT had to allow for 30 minutes after the last arrival of the Eastern flights. As a result, the published flight times had nothing to do with the actual flying time between the outstations and Charlotte!

At the time I worked there, the Air Carolina fleet consisted of PA-31-350 Chieftains, PA-31-310 Navajos, a PA-23-250 Aztec F, a PA-34-200 Seneca I, PA-32-260 Cherokee Six’s, a PA-28R-200 Arrow, and a PA-28-180 Warrior. Later a BN-2A Islander was added. 

There was no internet back in the 1970s, so telephones were used in the reservation department.  Reservations for each flight were handwritten on pages in 3-ring binders. The “reservation center” consisted of a small room in the hangar with a large glass window that looked like a fishbowl. We had four ladies who took the calls and booked the seats in the binders located on a lazy susan. Usually, two or three reservations agents were on duty at any given time.

The agents could book 21 confirmed seats on the five daily departures and return flights from Florence.  I recall the planes had a capacity of between three and nine passengers, depending upon the type. For each flight, there would be a lead pilot, several backup pilots standing by, and a mix of available planes.  The lead pilot would have to determine which plane, or planes, would be used depending upon the reservations in each direction and the passengers who would show up.  If a full twenty-one passengers were expected out of Florence, the first plane to be loaded and dispatched would hold the fewest number of seats and be the slowest. The Piper Warrior might go, followed by two Chieftains. If only 10 passengers were booked in both directions, two five-seat planes or one eight-seater plus a three-seater might go.

All of this made an appearance of a flying circus to the uninitiated passenger. Not only did each of the pilots need to be qualified and capable of flying any plane in the fleet, but they also had to load and unload the baggage and passengers personally. All flights were flown single-pilot, and the FAR 135 rules dictated duty and rest hours as well as weather criteria en route and at the destination, that was more restrictive than the general FAR 91 rules. There were times when no passengers could be carried, due to the weather, but the flights would position for the next scheduled leg. Hopefully, the weather would improve to allow a revenue flight.

Gate agents were only employed at Florence and Hickory. In Charlotte, the pilots manned the ticket counter, selling and pulling tickets, tagging baggage or receiving interline transfer bags, making PA announcements, and escorting the passengers to the plane. Again, for the initiated, seeing the “ticket agent” jumping into the pilot seat must have been a surprise. The Charlotte counter also had a telephone, but it was locked up and unmanned between flights. The company also maintained a P.O. Box at the Charlotte airport.

Flights were generally operated under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). At the time, neither Florence nor Hickory had radar for their approach control.  En route, ATC did not have radar coverage below about 7,000 feet.  While an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operation was allowable, it could result in more than doubling the block-to-block time and result in many passengers missing their connecting flights. Therefore, instrument clearances were only obtained when necessary. During many months, thunderstorms prevailed in the Carolinas, and a great deal of experience and expertise was gained visually dodging showers and severe conditions. Only a few of the planes had weather radar. We learned to correlate the radar displayed conditions with what we could observe out of the windscreen. This valuable experience would stand me in good stead throughout my future career. One time, I flew a load of passengers through a hundred miles of tornado warning safely and didn’t even know about the severe weather alert.

During my time at Air Carolina, I endeavored to improve several aspects of the operation. As I described the weight and balance process in Part 1, I considered this totally bogus. This, combined with the standard fuel loading in practice with what I arrived at, resulted in nearly every flight departing significantly overloaded. To reduce the exposure to overloading, I examined the actual fuel consumption and requirements to reduce the fuel burden when conditions were favorable to operating with minimum fuel.  In addition, I produced a series of standard passenger and baggage loading schedules for each individual plane in the fleet.

Another technical aspect that I addressed was engine operation. In aviation, a long-standing practice was for someone to “check you out” in an unfamiliar type. This type of training could result in “rules of thumb” and “procedures” that differed from what was specified by the engine and airplane manufacturer. I obtained my own set of manuals and other documents from the sources and found many of the power settings being used were incorrect. Correct and precise operation of advanced engines, such as the Lycoming TIO-J2BD in the Chieftain, was necessary not only to achieve optimum fuel economy but also service life of the components.

Many owners and operators of these engines, even today, think the way they operate them is more conservative. In truth, running them too rich and too cool can have a detrimental effect on the turbochargers and associated components. Having all of our pilots operate the engines exactly the same way, and as prescribed by Lycoming, resulted in excellent reliability. I could tell just by observing the color of the exhaust pipe if the engine was being operated correctly. The spark plugs rarely fouled, and we had no misbehaving engines.

Previously, I mentioned the ticket counter at the Charlotte airport. Ours was a small counter situated with those of Piedmont, Southern, United, and Delta. Once, a customer approached me at the counter and asked, “When is your flight from Frankfurt arriving?”  I said, “We only fly to Florence and Hickory.”  No flights were arriving at this airport from Europe. This was an example of one of the many times we were perceived as the central information counter. It was amusing as Air Carolina and Wheeler Airlines were two tiny local commuter lines.

On another occasion, I had a couple of customers in line purchasing tickets. A third gentleman was in line, and when it was his turn to be served, he started by grabbing me by my necktie and accusing me of being rude to him. He left the counter in a huff and went to Avis to rent a car instead of taking our flight.  He filed a complaint with my employer and I was called on the carpet to answer. What we concluded was the man’s company had sent him on this trip and booked him with the connection from an Eastern flight. There was no way he wanted to ride on a small plane with a young single pilot.  By making a scene and complaining, he could justify the expense of the rental car to his employer.

Stay tuned for Part 3, Flying the line for Air Carolina.

By Marvin G. Goldman

In 1925, the owner of Coca-Cola, Asa Candler, leased to the City of Atlanta his abandoned auto racetrack site for development into an airfield named Candler Field.

The first airlines to serve Atlanta were Florida Airways which operated from 1926 to 1927; St. Tammany Gulf Coast Airways, 1927, which became a division of Southern Air Transport System in 1929 and in turn part of American Airways in 1930; Pitcairn Aviation which started in 1927, was renamed Eastern Air Transport in 1930 and then became part of Eastern Air Lines in 1934; and Delta Air Service (later named Delta Air Lines) in 1930. During the 1930s, both Delta and Eastern expanded their routes into and out of Candler Field and became the main airlines serving Atlanta at the time. 

In 1929, the City of Atlanta purchased the airfield from Asa Candler on favorable terms, and though the airport was officially renamed Atlanta Municipal Airport in 1942, it continued to be popularly referred to as Candler Field. 

Here is my earliest postcard of Candler Field showing an airline:

In March 1939, Candler Field built its first control tower in a six-story building with administrative facilities. The control tower can be seen in this next card:

In 1940, Delta Air Lines acquired four DC-2s, but these were retained only until the end of that year, being replaced by DC-3s.

During World War II, Candler Field also became a U.S. air base, and it doubled in size. In 1941, Delta moved its headquarters from Monroe, Louisiana, to Atlanta, and for decades it has been the dominant airline there. 

Passenger numbers continued to grow, and in 1948 the airport closed its old terminal building and moved operations into a Quonset hut war-surplus “temporary” terminal while it developed plans to build a larger permanent terminal. That year saw more than 1 million passengers pass through Atlanta airport. 

The “temporary” terminal proved to be not so temporary. It served until May 1961, when a new terminal designed to accommodate the jet age finally opened. Here are three postcards from the “temporary” terminal era (1948-1961) at Atlanta Municipal Airport.

On May 3, 1961, Atlanta Municipal Airport finally opened its new Jet-Age terminal, publicizing it as the largest single terminal in the U.S. The terminal was designed to accommodate 6 million passengers a year, but in its first year, 9.5 million passengers utilized it! 

Long-time Mayor William B. Hartsfield, the driving force behind the development of Atlanta Airport as a major airline hub, passed away on February 22, 1971, and on February 28, 1971, the airport name was changed to William B. Hartsfield Atlanta Airport. On July 1, 1971, following the launch by Eastern Air Lines of the airport’s first international service (to Mexico and Montego Bay),  the airport was again renamed to William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. 

On September 21, 1980, Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport opened the Midfield Terminal. It was the world’s largest air passenger terminal complex at the time, designed to accommodate up to 55 million passengers each year. It replaced in stages the old terminal and its concourses A through F.

In October 2003, to honor former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, the Airport was again renamed, this time as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. 

Since 1998, Atlanta Airport has been the world’s busiest passenger airport. It serves on average 2,700 departures and arrivals daily by airlines operating nonstop to more than 150 U.S. destinations and over 70 international cities in 50 countries. In 2024, Atlanta airport handled 108.1 million passengers (an average of about 295,000 a day), the second-highest year in its history. This represents nearly a full recovery from the general decline in passenger traffic due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020 and followed the airport’s record 110 million passengers in 2019. 

Delta is by far the dominant airline in Atlanta, with about 73% of the passenger traffic. Southwest is second with 8%, followed by Spirit, Frontier, Endeavor Air (operating as Delta Connection),  American and United. 

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is now engaged in a major 20-year capital improvement program, which includes modernizing its domestic terminal, expanding concourses and cargo operations, replacing parking facilities, and eventually developing a hotel and mixed-use facilities. 

We close this Atlanta postcard article with a beautiful card showing the very aircraft that now resides in full splendor at the Delta Flight Museum, the site of Airliners International 2025 ATL, June 25-28, 2025, adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Notes: The originals of all postcards shown are in color and from the author’s collection. All are in standard or continental size. I estimate their rarity as Uncommon: The Candler Field card with an  Eastern DC-2; the ‘Temporary’ terminal card with a Delta DC-3 in the center; the Piedmont Airlines card; and the card showing Delta aircraft at the rotundas and gates added in 1968. The rest of the postcards are fairly common. This article is an update and revision of an earlier one by the author on Atlanta airport postcards published in the Spring 2015 issue of The Captain’s Log, vol. 39, no. 4. 

Airliners International 2025 ATL Postcard Exhibits by Collectors: The AI 2025 show at the Delta  Flight Museum, Atlanta airport, will again feature a display of airline and airport postcard exhibits.  Whether you’re an experienced collector or a beginner, please consider submitting an exhibit. It’s a lot of fun, and the postcard displays stimulate greater interest in collecting airline and airport postcards. This year’s Postcard Exhibit Guidelines can be found at airlinersinternational.org under the tab Contest Information (even though it’s an exhibit, not a contest). I look forward to seeing you at Airliners International 2025, Atlanta, June 25-28. 

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References: 

www.sunshineskies.com/atlanta.html. This is a great website with hundreds of pictures, many postcard views, and extensive information on the history of Atlanta airport. 

www.atl.com. Official site of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport 

www.deltamuseum.org. Official site of The Delta Flight Museum, Atlanta airport, where  Airliners International 2025 will be held June 25-28, 2025. 

golldiecat.tripod.com/atl.html. History of Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport from 1961 to 1980, illustrated with postcard views. 

Cearley, Jr., George W., Atlanta (1991) and The Delta Family History (1985), each self-published. 

Davies, R.E.G., Delta: An Airline and Its Aircraft. Paladwr Press (1990). 

www.wahsonline.com. Official site of the World Airline Historical Society.

Until next time, Happy Collecting. Marvin.

By Marvin G. Goldman

A warm welcome to Texas. I hope you enjoy our postcard trip through the skies of the Lone Star State as well as the Airliners International™ 2023 show and convention at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Let’s start with postcards of airlines that served Texas and are now history, followed by leading airlines that continue to operate in Texas skies.

Now let’s turn to some of the leading airlines currently serving Texas. We start with American Airlines which has the longest continuous operating history in Texas and maintains its headquarters in Fort Worth near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

We close with the airline that, along with American, is most associated with Texas skies – Southwest Airlines, also headquartered in Dallas. Southwest commenced operations in 1971 from its base at Love Field, Dallas. At first, it was an intrastate Texas airline, but in 1979 it started expanding to other states and eventually to international destinations as well. Today Southwest is the third largest airline in the U.S. (behind American and Delta) in terms of passengers carried.

NOTES: All postcards in this article are from the author’s collection unless otherwise noted.

Below is my estimate of the rarity of the above postcards:

• Rare: Trans-Texas DC-3 with hostess, Braniff DC-3 over Dallas, and Eastern DC-2 over Houston;
• Uncommon: Central Airlines, Trans-Texas DC-3 over San Jacinto Monument, Continental 727-200 Houston, American DC-3 at Meacham Field, American Convair 240 at El Paso, Delta Convair at Jefferson County Airport, and KLM DC-8 at Houston;
• The rest are fairly common.

I hope to see you at Airliners International™ 2023 DFW, June 22-24, 2023, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, next to Terminal C at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. This is the world’s largest airline history and collectibles show and convention, with more than 200 vendor tables for buying, selling, and trading airline memorabilia (including, of course, airline and airport postcards), seminars, the annual meeting of the World Airline Historical Society, annual banquet, tours and more. 

Follow this link for more information on entering the postcard, model and photograph/slide contests.

Until then, Happy Collecting, Marvin