What is the role of 79-years old DC3 N882TP?

A 79 years old  Aero Modifications AMI  DC-3-65TP is still flying very frequently. Currently N882TP is flying in Africa. What is the role of this aircraft?

The owner of the aircraft is ABX HOLDINGS INC in Houston. Recently this was renamed to Air TransportServices Group. The operator is shown by some website as National Test Pilot School but I doubt this is still the case.

The aircraft arrived at its current base Benin at October 19, 2024. The tracks of the aircraft are seldom complete from takeoff to landing. Due to low flying and the few receivers in the area the tracks stop at a while.

However some tracks provide a clue about the purpose of this aircraft. Like on September 13, 2024. At that time the aircraft was based at Luanda in Angola. The aircraft arrived here at July 15. It stayed at Luanda for many weeks. The area where the tracks below are shown has natural resource like copper and iron.

In december 2023 it made a trip from Japan all the way to Africa. This was a ferry to new missions in Africa. In November 2023 it did many flights over Japan. For example at November 16, 2023 it flew a pattern near Semboku. This area is known for resources like gold, silver and copper.

Back to November 2024. At November 7 the aircraft flew many in the neighborhood of a city called Enugu in Nigeria. This area has many natural resources like coal, limestone, iron ore and gypsum.

The interior of the aircraft reveals more details. The photo below was made in 2016 by John Maloney at Mojave Airport, California. It shows four chairs and a couple of screens.

The role of the aircraft becomes even more clear by closely watching this photo. Made at October 13 2023 in Japan. At that time the aircraft was based there for a mission. Note the antenna at the back of the aircraft. Other photos of this aircraft do not show the antenna which means it can be removed.

Previous area’s the aircraft was active were Canadian Arctic and Indonesian Borneo.

Conclusion:

This aircraft’s role is searching for natural resources.