OK so it was a Beech and not a Lockheed.

[TheBoy]

They are/were the prototypical pattern for every low buck, skin of their teeth, 'can we pay you next week?' midnight mail haulers.

I remember one week we ended up with 3 Methow 18's on the ramp here at Felts (Spokane). I asked the pilot of the 4th Methow Beech that showed up what the deal was. He told me our friendly FSDO here kept grounding every airplane they sent! The first got grounded, so they sent a second to fly that run till they could get #1 going again, then #2 got grounded so they sent #3 and so on. I got a pretty good laugh out of that. All those years and I never got any pic's of 'em here...

[cwmc]

When I flew there they had a policy of repairing whatever was needed. Whenever anything was squawked, it was done. Ramp checks were no problem for me, ever. Certainly not for airplane condition.

In my mind they had the best airplanes I flew during the Beech 18 time period of my career. Flying for 3 different operators gives one a bit of perspective. I flew a Methow converted C-45 that needed some troubleshooting and my experience level kept me ignorant of some things, but their E-18S was never a problem. It did have a cylinder swallow a valve once but it just required a cylinder change.

I do recall there were "cargo wars" in the Seattle FSDO, where Sal Air and Methow were located in the mid 80's, between the two DC-3 operators. Perhaps there was some discrimination from time to time regarding Methow and it's owner. Sal Air seemed to be more bucks-up and had "connections". Plus they were featured in the nifty Phillips multi-grade oil ads of the era!

Chris...

[Rajay]

I used to fuel up those Methow Beechs when worked at KBFI in Seattle.

I wonder what it's doing in Ohio?

Not too much from the look of it!

[Taigh Ramey]

If I'm not mistaken the Methow Beech was the corporate aircraft for the Viagra division of Pfizer...