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#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE |
| Vol. 21 No. 18 | Monday
April 25,
2022 |
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Joe McBryan The Legacy Of Flying A DC-3 |
Joe McBryan is a modern-day air cargo pioneer of aviation and air cargo. For over a half century he has pulled himself and Buffalo Airways up by the bootstraps, first by flying supplies to little hard to reach villages in Northern Canada and also as an aerial firefighter, and maybe more importantly by lovingly keeping the art and ability of some 50- and even 80-year old aircraft not only together but also air worthy. Joe, from what we can see of him on TV is the real man. You aren’t going to find out stuff about him later. It is all there right now. Crusty, crabby, demanding, but also with the softest side you might imagine. He reminds me of my friend, the late Ralph O’Neill , a WW I ace who sold fighters for Boeing, married Bill Boeing’s Secretary Jane Galbraith and then quit and founded NYRBA, the airline that pioneered the first international mail and passengers schedules down the east coast of South America. Ralph flew the first Consolidated Commodores (PBY Catalina), an open cockpit aircraft with a comfortable interior outfitted for passengers. Pan Am, a pipsqueak airline with political connections stole NYRBA from Ralph in 1930. I thought of Ralph, when a few years back, the regulators in Canada for one reason or another forbade Joe McBryan to fly passengers on one of his wonderful DC-3s via a regular schedule from Yellowknife to Hay River. The puddle jump at a couple thousand feet was a daily ritual used by commuters, business people and tourists; it turned a six hour drive into a 121 mile air journey, a blast from the past. Here would come Joe in his flying cap and flight bag followed by the passengers and the ritual would be repeated every day. The airplane that maybe had just delivered food supplies to some tiny village up north and then QC with seats would spring to life again with a throaty growl and it would be off to the races. Have you ever flown in a DC-3? As compared to a jet, of the roll down the runway feels like it takes forever. The experience up top is punctuated with a welcome aloft to a world where peering out of any one of the aircraft’s 14 cabin windows reveals a world in slow-motion, going on as usual, but where you can actually see things beneath. You can see cars, even pick out their colors. You can tell it’s Sunday because those same cars are parked around the churches.  The
Buffalo Airways passenger experiences were captured in the TV show Ice
Pilots.One episode should not be missed: Here is Joe in the left seat flying along and back in the cabin is a young cabin attendant who, an hour before passenger flight time was humping and running loading cargo, but is now dressed up and amongst the sheep, serving mints or something. In the front of the cabin a giant great dane along for the ride to Hay River cannot wait and has just taken a big dump and everybody in the cabin is holding their nose. The young lad has the thankless job of clean up and half way through that process with everybody watching and groaning, one person just laughs and before you know it all the 12 or 20 passengers are laughing out loud, including Joe, who reaches over and cracks the cockpit side window to get some fresh air. When was the last time something extraordinary like that happened aloft? A planeload of displeased passengers, no, people deciding they were having just too much fun to allow some dog shit to get in the way. A moment where you realize it’s only life and what you are experiencing is rare and treasured indeed! So chalk up attitude adjustment as part of the Joe McBryan Buffalo Airways DC-3 flight experience. So why can’t Joe be allowed in some manner or form to fly his happy band between Yellowknife and Hay River?
Is it the aircraft? Don’t be ridiculous—Buffalo Air has so many DC-3 parts that Mikey, Joe’s son and his team rebuilt an almost entirely destroyed DC-3 and had it airworthy for the D-Day 75th Anniversary a few years ago. “Plane Savers” was and remains a series of over a 100 hand-made YouTube video episodes of the step by step restoration of what will now be an immortal aircraft for people to experience in a museum somewhere. The airplane had flown in 1944 above Normandie, who knows, maybe even above our Cardine family home in Bernay, dispatching troops, and then post WW II served cargo for a second life until being left on the scrap heap of time to decay and rot, alone and forgotten. But the Family McBryan came to town and over a period of a year with volunteers and Buffalo staff and meals from Tim Hortons and elsewhere in Yellowknife, , raised the majestic DC-3 up after decade of inactivity like a phoenix and returned it to life up in the sky where she belongs. That is the stuff of a legendary adventure, so pardon me for playing it to the hilt. YouTube should have given an Emmy to this epic Plane Savers series for its genuine original and home-made concept, passion, heart and quality. It's high flying and even pioneering reality television for sure, certainly better than some of the stuff passing for reality TV these days. What Mikey McBryan did with Plane Savers was one up Ice Pilots’ professional multi-year series of programs about Buffalo Airways. Whether you are baptized in this stuff or not, it is completely irresistible! When that airplane rolled down the runway and actually rotated up into the air, it was absolutely thrilling, head to toe. It felt like The Yankees winning the World Series. But no more scheduled DC-3 flights? I suspect Buffalo Joe got caught up in something that most in aviation experience in one form or another with regulators. But at any level, enough is enough. At some point government in Canada needs to take a long look in the mirror. It’s like Canada not allowing the seemingly hundreds of cargo-worthy, ex-military Lockheed Hercules aircraft to be pressed into service there. Go figure. But kindly step back and take a deep breath for a moment. Aside from keeping an airworthy fleet of more of the legendary aircraft of the past than anybody before or since, in a world of sameness in 2022, is a genuine original, Joe McBryan, who also gets the nod as among the most fabulous aviation people Canada or for that matter North America has ever produced. He is with us now and deserves every recognition, including the ability to share what he knows to be one of the simple pleasures of life, which he has made safe and possible for others to enjoy, over and over again. Taking a ride in a Buffalo Airways DC-3. GDA |
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 Vol. 21 No. 15 Kale Logistics Solutions & More Chuckles for April 7, 2022 Shanghai Shutdown Marjan Rintel CEO At KLM Feel Good Story |
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Publisher-Geoffrey Arend
• Managing Editor-Flossie Arend • Editor Emeritus-Richard
Malkin Film Editor-Ralph Arend • Special Assignments-Sabiha Arend, Emily Arend |
While fan wikis occasionally post fictional scripts, the official ThunderCats (1985) never shows Olympus. However, the 2011 reboot (on Cartoon Network) did explicitly feature a character named "Pumyra" who wields a staff that controls the dead—a direct reference to Hades—but that series was canceled before exploring further.
Do you have a favorite moment from the ThunderCats Greek episodes? Was it the pig transformation in "Garden of Delights" or the labyrinth sequence in "Tower of Traps"? Share your thoughts in the comments below! thundercats greek episodes
But why did a show about cat-like aliens have a recurring obsession with Greek mythology? Let us journey back to Third Earth and uncover the specific episodes, the archetypes, and the thematic reasons behind this unique crossover. The term "ThunderCats Greek episodes" does not refer to a single arc but rather to a handful of key episodes where Greek mythology directly drives the plot. If you are looking to binge these specific stories, here are the essential entries: 1. The Garden of Delights (Season 1) Perhaps the most overt of the Greek-inspired tales. In this episode, the ThunderCats discover a utopian garden where time moves slowly and pleasure is paramount. The keeper of this garden is a gender-bent interpretation of Circe (the sorceress from The Odyssey ). Like Homer’s enchantress, this character turns intruders into animals (specifically pigs, aligning perfectly with the original myth). Lion-O must resist temptation and solve a riddle involving a golden apple—a direct nod to the Judgment of Paris and the Apple of Discord. 2. The Astral Prison (Season 2) This episode leans heavily into Tartarus and the punishment of the Titans. The ThunderCats encounter a being trapped in an astral dimension for trying to steal the power of the gods. The visual design of the "Astral Prison" mirrors classical descriptions of the underworld, complete with rivers of fire and cyclical punishments. The villain’s hubris (thinking he could overpower the "Ancient Spirits of Evil") is a textbook Greek tragedy flaw. 3. Return to Thundera (The Movie / Pilot) While primarily about their home planet, the mythology of this feature-length episode borrows the Orpheus and Eurydice motif. Lion-O must journey into a spiritual underworld to retrieve the soul of Jaga. The specific rule that he "cannot look back" until the journey is complete is lifted directly from the Orphic mysteries. This establishes that the ThunderCats universe operates on a polytheistic, soul-based cosmology rather than pure science. 4. The Mumm-Ra Connection: Excalibur (Season 4) Wait a minute—Excalibur is Arthurian, not Greek. However, this episode is crucial because it introduces the concept of God-forged weapons . The episode reveals that Mumm-Ra was once a mortal king (like a prophetic King Midas cursed for greed) who sought immortality by imprisoning the "Spirits of Good and Evil." The backstory involves a labyrinth (Minotaur reference) and a chalice that tests one's soul (a reference to the tests of Hercules). The Recurring Archetypes: Gods, Monsters, and Hubris To understand why these episodes resonate, we must look at how the show translates Greek motifs into 80s cartoon logic. The Gorgon's Stare (Petrification) In several episodes (notably The Petrified Gazer ), the ThunderCats face a creature whose gaze turns them to stone. While pop culture credits this solely to Medusa, the show adds a unique twist: the Gorgon is usually a tragic figure cursed by Mumm-Ra, not a true monster. This reflects the Ovidian tradition of Metamorphoses , where victims of the gods are pitied rather than hated. The Labors of Hercules Lion-O is often put through "trials" rather than just random fights. In episodes like Lion-O's Anointment Final Day: The Trial of Evil , the young lord must complete a series of impossible tasks (cleaning stables, retrieving a artifact from a serpent) before earning his title. This is structurally identical to the Twelve Labors. Lion-O even possesses a "Claw Shield" reminiscent of the Nemean Lion pelt—a nice visual pun on his own species. The Chorus of the Ancient Spirits While Mumm-Ra prays to the "Ancient Spirits of Evil," the ThunderCats occasionally pray to the "Ancient Spirits of Good." This duality mimics the Greek belief in daimons (spirits) who existed between mortals and the Olympians. The show never names Zeus or Hera, but the Pantheon of "Third Earth gods" occupies the same functional space: capricious, powerful, and prone to interfering in mortal affairs. Why Greek Mythology? The Writer’s Room Logic In the 1980s, action cartoons faced strict censorship regarding violence and religious content. You could not show a laser piercing flesh, but you could show a man turning into a pig because a sorceress waved a wand. While fan wikis occasionally post fictional scripts, the
For a child viewer, these episodes were a secret lesson in classics. For an adult rewatching today, they are a delightful game of "spot the myth." Was it the pig transformation in "Garden of
When fans recall the iconic 1980s animated series ThunderCats , their minds typically leap to the Sword of Omens, the mutated landscape of Third Earth, or the menacing visage of Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living. However, buried in the show’s 130-episode run lies a fascinating sub-genre that often confuses and delights new viewers: the ThunderCats Greek episodes .
Greek mythology provided a "classical education" loophole. By naming a monster a "Cyclops" or a "Chimera," the writers were banking on parental approval. Parents in the 80s recognized The Odyssey as "quality literature," even if it was being shouted by a six-foot-tall tiger-man.
