Ver-r-ry Inter-resting, as Artie Johnson would say. For the life of me I cannot remember how I got the idea the 317 was D model rebuild; but I always thought that. The number was 66-16317, so that fits as an early factory H. She was a strong bird, too. We once loaded several boxes of bangalores and then picked up to 50 feet to check the torque --- then set back down to load on some more. I think we lifted off with 43 to 45 pounds of torque and then had to work down into a hover hole to drop them off. The whole thing was a piece of cake. Other birds would rag down at under 40 pounds. Or I could just be a little biased, my memory seems to be somewhat self-serving at times!

Pickett