Originally Posted by WHBM
You know, I really must apologise for being the one who comes along and so rudely knocks down others' comments. Anyway, there were two other F.70s bought in North America, they were N322K and N324K, which were bought by Ford in 1994-5, and used on corporate work until 2010, when they were sold to Air Panama, where they continue as HP1731 and HP1732. Panama airport is just south of the canal, so they don't quite count as being in North America any more.
Speaking for myself at least, I take absolutely no offense as I hardly consider your comments "knocking down" so much as "adding to". If we were all sitting in a room somewhere having a conversation and I said "So far as I know UTA never operated Caravelles in the South Pacific" and you responded with "Actually, they did. They flew etc. etc." I think we'd all agree that such additions wouldn't be rude so much as good, enjoyable repartee from which we'd all benefit. Your knowledge of airlines and airliners is as extensive as it is impressive, so I think it's fair to say we all appreciate your comments and, as it may come up - corrections. It's worth noting however, again speaking only for myself, that the primary subject of my questions and answers are
scheduled and charter airlines rather than corporate owned jetliners, of which I have neither knowledge or interest in. That said, information such as you've provided above can only add to the entertainment and information base hopefully provided in this thread, so it's all good.
By the way,
jlemon, Hughes Airwest is indeed correct! My flight back to Denver routed SEA-GEG-LWS-BOI-TWF-SLC-DEN. Man, I sure miss those milkruns! Many of the segments were short enough that the flights weren't all that high and so they were like air tours of the American countryside.
Additionally, I did a little checking on the AOM route to Tahiti and came up with
THIS. If you scroll about halfway down you'll see a quote from Christopher who indicates he was the LAX Reservations Manager of AOM, which was flying CDG-LAX-PPT. He doesn't mention the aircraft, but I would guess it could have been a DC-10-30, especially in light of
THIS comment on Yahoo forums. A subsequent comment goes on to mention that AOM at some point switched to an A340 on this route.
Also, back in 1981 I flew from Papeete to Raiatea on an Air Polynesie F-27. That was a great trip that included First Class air between Los Angeles and Papeete on an Air New Zealand DC-10, a two week independant fam through Ted Cook's Islands In The Sun that included visits to Bora Bora, Raiatea, Moorea and Tahiti. My return to LA was in First Class aboard UTA's 747. I remember really looking forward to that flight in expectation of excellent "French" service in UTA's Galaxy Class. Unfortunately, the service was a bit underwhelming compared to that of Air New Zealand and in retrospect I should have gone with my other option which would have been flying South Pacific Island Airways' 707 from Tahiti to Pago Pago to Honolulu, then connecting the next day to Braniff's 747 to DFW and whatever 727 back to Denver. SPIA wasn't well known for its cabin service, but by 1981 many airlines were starting to retire their 707s from passenger service and it would've been a great routing to have flown, especially in First Class. The view of those two big Pratt & Whitney JT3Ds from the perspective of the First Class cabin windows was always one of my favorites. My last flight on a 707 came in 1983 between Quito, Guayaquil and Miami aboard Ecuatoriana.
One of the finest views aloft