Current Tally on Flying DC-3/C-47 Types World-Wide

[JohnTerrell]

Being on a DC-3/C-47 kick over the past week, I thought I would spend a bit of time collecting as much information as I could on all variants of the DC-3 currently flying (including turbo-conversions), world-wide.

**UPDATED AUGUST 17 TO MATCH: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=65826

There are at least 193 Douglas DC-3's (of all variants and modifications) flying:
Australia: 7 (VH-AES, VH-ABR, VH-AGU, VH-EAE, VH-EAF, VH-OVM, VH-TMQ)
Bolivia: 1 (CP-2421)
Canada: 23 (C-FBKB, C-FCUE, C-FDTD, C-FGCX, C-FKAL, C-GKKB, C-FLFR, C-FMKB, C-FTGI, C-FTGX, C-FVNS, C-FWUI, C-GAWI, C-GDAK, C-GEAI, C-GEAJ, C-GGSU, C-GHGF, C-GJKB, C-GPNR, C-GRSB, C-GVKB, C-GWZS)
Colombia: 17 (FAC1654, FAC1658, FAC1667, FAC1681, HK-1175, HK-122, HK-1315, HK-2006, HK-3037, HK-3215, HK-3286, HK-3292, HK-5016, PNC-0213, PNC-0256, PNC-0257, PNC-0258)
Denmark: 1 (OY-BPB)
El Salvador: 2 (FAS116, YS-347E)
Finland: 1 (OH-LCH)
France: 3 (F-AZTE, F-AZOX, F-HVED)
Germany: 1 (ZS-NTE)
Guatemala: 2 (FAG530, FAG590)
Hungary: 1 (HA-LIX)
Iceland: 1 (TF-NPK)
India: 1 (VP905)
Kenya: 1 (5Y-WOW)
Mauritania: 1 (5T-MAH)
Netherlands: 1 (PH-PBA)
New Zealand: 3 (ZK-AWP, ZK-DAK, ZK-JGB)
Norway: 1 (LN-WND)
Russia: 3 (RA-05738, RA-2059G, RA-2944G)
South Africa: 9 (SAAF6839, SAAF6852, SAAF6885, SAAF6887, ZS-ASN, ZS-BXF, ZS-CAI, ZS-CRV, ZS-DIW)
Sweden: 2 (N41CQ, SE-CFP)
Switzerland: 2 (N150D, N431HM)
Thailand: 7 (RTAF46151, RTAF46153, RTAF46154, RTAF46156, RTAF46157, RTAF46158, RTAF46159)
Turkey: 1 (N3291)
United Kingdom: 5 (G-AMPY?, G-ANAF, N147DC, N473DC, ZA947)
United States: 96 (N103NA, N115U, N131PR, N137PB, N138FS, N141PR, N143D, N144WC, N146RD, N147AZ, N151ZE, N15MA, N15SJ, N17334, N18121, N193DP, N198RD, N1XP, N200MF, N231GB, N24320, N25641, N25673, N26MA, N271SE, N272R, N272ZZ, N2805J, N28AA, N28TN, N29TN, N3006, N300BF, N300MF, N30TN, N3239T, N33611, N33644, N33VW, N34, N341A, N345AB, N346AB, N34DF, N353MM, N400MF, N403JB, N41HQ, N437GB, N43XX, N44587, N44V, N45366, N467SP, N472AF, N47E, N47SJ, N47TB, N500MF, N5106X, N534BE, N56V, N560PT, N583V, N587MB, N60154, N60480, N61981, N62CC, N64766, N64767, N64784, N705GB, N728G, N734H, N737H, N74589, N751A, N763A, N791HH, N7AP, N814CL, N8336C, N836M, N86584, N8704, N87745, N877MG, N882TP, N8WJ, N92578, N932H, N9796N, N982Z, N983DC, N99FS)

-----Purposely Not Included: N16005 of the Lyon Air Museum and N1944A of the Fantasy of Flight collection - both are not currently operated. C-FKGL ditched in a lake on June 21, 2019. N59314 suffered fuselage and tailwheel damage in a hard landing on August 1, 2019. HK-2820 was damaged in a runway overrun on August 15, 2019.

Last edited by JohnTerrell on Sat Aug 17, 2019 11:17 am, edited 23 times in total.

[ErrolC]

Brave man!
ZK-JGB ex-N451ZS s/n 4363 flew several weeks ago - I saw this on Facebook, maybe the Classic Wings page?
Work was done on it at Omaka, and I think it made a return trip to its owner's location at Te Anau. It wasn't active at Omaka airshow however.

[quemerford]

Canada should be C-FDTD.

[JohnTerrell]

Thank you Errol and Quemerford. I have adjusted my post to reflect your feedback. ; )

[Mick G]

For Canada:
- C-GJKM should be removed as it crashed a few weeks ago, so it can't be considered serviceable.

Unless I'm missing something, there are a few you missed for Canada,
- C-FCUE
- C-GWZS
- C-FMKB
- C-GKKB
- C-FGCX
- C-FVNS
- C-FWUI
- C-FKGL

[JohnTerrell]

Thank you Mick, I greatly appreciate it! The list has been rectified and added to.

I will keep this going for the next few days, and then eventually add it into the stickied thread.

[Mick G]

One more thing to consider, as of last year, Basler had completed 66 of the BT67 conversions (Not including Thats All Brother) I think two have been destroyed? Also Preferred Turbine 3 is another company in the US also doing the conversion, they had a fatal crash a few months ago, I think killing the owner, so I don;t know what will become of them, but at least we know between them, there are ~70 Turbo's in service (Not including the old South Africa Air Force Turbo's)

And also:
Mauritania Air Force
Mali Air Force

[JohnTerrell]

With regard to the Mauritania Air Force, they operate 5T-MAH, and supposedly have another Basler BT-67 on order.

With regard to the Mali Air Force, I can't seem to confirm if they have any they are still operating. They had TZ-390 (latest I can find are photos of it looking quite rough, in outdoor storage) and TZ-391 (which is now C-GJKB).

[Pogo]

Fan-tastic! Thanks again JT!!

[Mick G]

N9796N shows new registration last Wednesday May 22nd. Whats up with this one?

As for the rest, judging from the lack of participation, It would suggest you must have a pretty accurate list, although if this is correct, I am completely shocked by the low quantity left flying in the third world. I thought there were dozens going in Latin America, especially Villiavicencio. What about the Caribbean, Brazil, Chili and Bolivia?
All that you have left for Africa is with South Africa, that doesn't seem right either? What about Chad, The Congo, Niger, Kenya etc....???

Can't be right that there are more flying in Canada that Africa and South America combined.....

[quemerford]

Soon to fly in UK is C-47 42-100521 'Night Fright'; not sure what the new/current registration is/will be...

[Cubs2jets]

N9796N shows new registration last Wednesday May 22nd. Whats up with this one?

As for the rest, judging from the lack of participation, It would suggest you must have a pretty accurate list, although if this is correct, I am completely shocked by the low quantity left flying in the third world. I thought there were dozens going in Latin America, especially Villiavicencio. What about the Caribbean, Brazil, Chili and Bolivia?
All that you have left for Africa is with South Africa, that doesn't seem right either? What about Chad, The Congo, Niger, Kenya etc....???

Can't be right that there are more flying in Canada that Africa and South America combined.....

I'd say it is likely the shortage of avgas that has put DC-3's / C-47's to pasture in most of the world. Jet fuel is much more widely available at a reasonable price than avgas. You can upgrade a nearly 80 year old airframe to run on jet fuel for several million dollars - or you can buy a much newer replacement that is much easier to fly (not tailwheel) and easier to load (lower entry and level floor).

If I win the lottery, I'd have Basler convert a DC-3 for me and travel the world in style and enjoy the ride.

C2j

[Coert Munk]

Russia reported 9Q-CUK is the same a/c as N41CQ in Sweden, so delete that one in Russia.

[Coert Munk]

...and South African ZS-NTE is with her owner in Germany!

[Mike]

HB-IRJ (listed under Switzerland) was flown to a new owner in Turkey a few months back, and has since been re-registered.