WHBM

White Pass & Yukon also operated airline services. What was their first aircraft type ?

JoeDTW

In 1989, the LGW operation was flown by Air Inter on behalf of AF, using the very rare Dassault Mercure.

My parents and I flew LGW-CDG on AF in May, 1989. When I made the reservations, the timetable said the operator would be AF, but equipment would be "EQV".

When we checked in at LGW, the agent said our flight would be operated by Air Inter, on a "baby Airbus". After we got to the gate, I saw an Air Inter aircraft taxiing in, and I thought "that doesn't look like an A320". I checked the latest timetable (which I'd picked up when we checked in), saw the equipment code "DAM" for our flight, then was stunned to see I would be on a Mercure.

Getting to fly on a Mercure by accident was definitely one of the luckiest travel experiences I've ever had.

WHBM

Size of an A320 but engines from a 737-200. Notably short range (because they traded fuel capacity and wing area for aircraft size). Said to have never sold outside France because it didn't have the range to get outside France !

jrl767

Greetings to the Quiz community!

I have been rather preoccupied with relocating from the DC area back home to Seattle (five TCON round-trips between 11 Mar and 31 May, three of which involved redeye returns; plus a SEA<-->MSY jaunt) ... anyway, I am now getting back into the DC work routine as a "geo-bach" (geographically-separated bachelor), and will be here for the next three weeks

in clearing out 49 years' worth of stuff out of my mom's house over the past 18 or so months, I have found a number of interesting aviation memorabilia that I had stashed away during my teenage years

now that I have no domestic distractions during the evening, I think it's a good opportunity to review these artifacts and come up with some Quiz questions ... so here we go!

let's start with a Pacific Northern Airlines (PN) timetable dated March 10, 1967:
(1)- What three airlines are shown in the "States-Alaska Interline Connecting Schedules" table? ANSWERED ... UA, NW, WA
(2)- All connecting service was via SEA, as this was the only point in the Lower 48 that PN served. What seven cities in the Lower 48 are listed in the table? Which do NOT actually have any connecting flights listed?
(3)- Which airline only appears once in the table? Identify which city it serves, and whether the service is to or from SEA.
(4)- Six SEA-ANC fares ($75.00, $89.40, $99.00, $104.40, $107.00, and $124.00) appear in the timetable. Identify the cabin/routing combination(s) for each.
(5)- Identify the cabin/routing configuration for the only published round-trip fare that was actually less than 2x the corresponding one-way fare.

Q6 thru Q9 are all from an Allegheny Commuter marketing brochure, probably summer 1972 (each X represents a single word):
(6)- "Introducing the new flagship of the commuter airline fleet: The remarkable Beechcraft 99". Identify the aircraft type.

Fill in the marketing-speak:
(7)- "Any seat you choose is < XX > ... You will always sit < XXX > AND on the < XXX >! (No awkward climbing around or straining for a look at the scenery.)"
(8)- "A < XX >, your captain has met the skill and experience requirements set by < XX > for < XX >, as well as specific proficiency in the operation of the Beechcraft 99. Please do not try to talk to the captain during flight. He < XXXXXXXX > before and after your trip.
(9)- " ... thoughtful, built-in conveniences right at your fingertips. You have your own < XX >, your own < XXX >, and your own < XX >. (You may smoke -- cigarettes only, please -- just as soon as the NO SMOKING light winks off.) Your big window has < XXX > that you can arrange to your own satisfaction."

WHBM

Hello jrl, nice set of questions here.

Let's think who was serving Seattle then; it wasn't many. I would go for United, Northwest and Western. Apart from the local service carriers, that would be pretty much it for service from the lower 48.


What did they get around 1972. Shorts Skyvan ?

jrl767

and you would be correct

AL Commuter might have indeed started operating the Skyvan at that time, but this brochure describes another type of aircraft

twb3

Beech 99?

TWB

jrl767

welcome to the Quiz, twb3! a correct answer (well, actually two; see the updates above) is a great way to start

twb3

Thanks.

I had a memorable ride in a Beech 99 in '81 that featured what I still remember as the most violent turbulence encounter in any aircraft I have been on. Good thing Beech builds strong airplanes.

I don't think Allegheny Commuter ever operated the Skyvan, but they did operate the Short 330 and 360, which are arguably Skyvan variants.

TWB

kochleffel

My worst experience of turbulence was also in a Beech 99, 1974 or 1975, over Indiana - Allegheny Commuter operated by Britt.

jlemon

No problems encountered concerning the Beech 99 with regard to my flights back in the day between San Luis Obispo (SBP) and LAX with Wings West operating as American Eagle.

However, one flight on board a Handley Page Jetstream (the original airplane and thus not the J31/J32) operated by Santa Barbara-based Pacific Coast Airlines (formerly Apollo Airways) was another experience entirely.

We were inbound to SBA from SJC on a beautiful day. There was an offshore wind condition that afternoon as the Santa Ana winds were briskly blowing out to sea. As some of you may know, there is a mountain ridge located right next to Santa Barbara that reaches 4000 feet above the ocean in some spots. As the winds heading offshore swept over this ridge, a very turbulent wind condition was present in the lee of the mountain range on the coastal side.

For whatever reason, the Jetstream flight crew elected to skim very low over the ridge as we were on approach to SBA....and right into very turbulent winds descending at a high rate of speed toward the coastline.

The effect of the turbulence was akin to Thor taking his hammer and hitting the airplane......repeatedly. I was tightly belted in and my head still hit the aircraft ceiling above my seat several times accompanied by a few shouts and screams from the passengers.

Then we were out of it and landed safely at SBA. And the flight crew didn't say a word as we stepped off the airplane.

jrl767

after two weeks with no discussion, I think it's ok to confess to online research -- this revealed two aircraft types associated with the company in 1934 (a Ford Tri-Motor and a Keystone-Loening K-84 "Commuter"); there is also a record of a WP&Y Fairchild 82 that crashed in 1936, but no entry-into-service date is available for this plane

Seat 2A

Thanks to everyone for their ongoing participation in the OTAQ&D - be it questions or answers. It's good to see it rolling along nicely. Special thanks to jrl767 and WHBM for their questions.

I had researched 30 new history and service oriented ones for later this fall, but upon further examination I discovered that all but two of them were easily answered via a simple Google search. Well dang! Off to the trash and back to the drawing board, mainly my collection of OAGs. Hopefully come October I'll have a good backlog of scintillating schedule related questions for your consideration.

As I'm down in LA for a couple of days before returning to the wild side of Denali National Park, here's one for your consideration...

Yesterday, while driving out to Fairbanks International, I noticed a 737-200 on final approach. This aircraft was operating a scheduled flight for a commercial airline. Can anyone identify the airline it belonged to and which city it was flying in from?

Indelaware

Probably Air North (4N) from Dawson City (YDA).

jlemon

And the aircraft may have actually been an Air North B737-200 Combi (73M) originating at Whitehorse (YXY) with an intermediate stop at Dawson City as Alaska Air's 73M aircraft are, of course, long gone from the AS fleet....

Speaking of Whitehorse, here's another quick quiz question:

In the fall of 1994, what airline was operating Grumman Gulfstream I turboprop service between Yellowknife (YZF) and Whitehorse three days a week? And for bonus points, identify the intermediate stop made by the GRS between YZF and YXY.

Tropical Weather Update, Gulf of Mexico: As I write this, a friend of mine is flying in command of a USAF Reserve WC-130J Hurricane Hunter out of Keesler AFB in Mississippi. The airplane is heading down to the Caribbean Sea just east of Cancun (CUN) to take a look at a tropical weather feature that the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has now labeled as Invest 91-L. This system is forecast make its way across the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico. NHC gives it a 70% chance of strengthening and it may become Tropical Storm Bill and then possibly make landfall somewhere on the Texas coast south or southwest of Houston early this week. Stay tuned.....