jrl767

17- ABQ didn’t have nonstop service to San Diego (SAN); both PSA and Air California were still intrastate carriers in 1975, and I honestly can’t picture either of them running LAX-SMF with three stops ... so I suspect we’re looking for either Las Vegas (LAS) or Phoenix (PHX) as the connecting point

either of those would have probably been a TWA 727 flight from ABQ, and a Hughes AirWest DC9 to SMF ... I’m kind of leaning toward PHX, since LAS would be a logical first stop for a SMF-bound RW flight; in that case, both of the other stops might have been in SoCal (four to six possibilities), but I think it’s more likely that the last one was in the Bay Area (three possibilities)

to that end, I’ll try to cut down the guesswork by saying San Jose (SJC) and Oakland (OAK)

WHBM

I think this was Singapore, operated through Mumbai in India, operated on a L1011-500, until they sold their fleet of 6 to Delta, whereupon their Combi 747 was used. It ran about 3 times a week Toronto-London-Mumbai-Singapore and fully used one aircraft.

KT550

Please guess again!

>> Aerospatiale SA.365 Dauphin

jlemon

22. Nope! Which means.....

jlemon

17. You are off to a good start here. And here's the scorecard....

* First airline: TWA operating a B727-100 ABQ-PHX - Nope!

* Second airline: Hughes Airwest operating a DC9-10 - Yep!

* Stops made by the Hughes Airwest flight: SJC & OAK - Nope!

And I'm unclear whether you have guessed that LAS was the first stop made by the Hughes Airwest flight so please clarify.

So we are still looking for the first air carrier and the equipment it operated, the connecting city and the three stops made by the Hughes Airwest flight.

YVR Cockroach

That's how I remember it. So Correct and on to the next Bonus Question.

jlemon

34. Aerospatiale (or its successor Eurocopter): Yep! The SA 365 Dauphin: Nope!

YVR Cockroach

22. Pan Am?

That would explain CPT as the tech stop (or pick up pax on the inbound/drop off on the outbound?, or no traffic rights at CPT at all?)

KT550

AS.350 Écureuil

jlemon

22. Correct! And I believe you are also right concerning Capetown being purely a technical stop as the Pan Am schedule for this flight does not list arrival or departure times at CPT; thus, it appears PA did not have any traffic rights at all at this time at Capetown. Here's the sched.....

PA 450: Johannesburg (JNB) 14:15 - ? Capetown (CPT) ? - 21:10 Rio de Janeiro (GIG) 22:30 - 07:25+1 New York (JFK)
Freq: JNB-GIG Sundays only, GIG-JFK Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays only
Service classes: F/Y
Equip: 707

jlemon

34. Yep! The AS 350 is known in the U.S. as the AStar. The OAG lists the equipment as being an "NDE" which it then describes as being either an AS 350 (which is powered by a single engine) or AS 355 (which is powered by twin engines). And the OAG also listed both of these types as being single engine helicopters which is incorrect. I'm reasonably certain Heli-Air-Monaco was utilizing the single engine AS 350 for its shuttle service in 1996.

So all we need now is the number of daily scheduled flights operated by Heli-Air-Monaco from Nice to Monte Carlo in 1996.....

KT550

Indeed, the AS350 is/was marketed in the U.S. as the Astar.
Did this name relate solely to those with U.S. built Lycoming engines or all AS350s? (assuming there were/are some with the French engine flying in the U.S.A.)
My first (and only) ride in the single engine version was in 1988 from the West 30th St. heliport in New York (JRA) A sight-seeing trip was $50 a seat back then.

**
Re number of daily flights, I'll go for 20 (ten in each direction).

KT

jlemon

I believe Air Canada was operating a Boeing 747-400 Combi on the service when the bilateral treaty fell apart. So perhaps the quibbles had something to do with cargo.....and the primary quibbles were between Canada and India.

jlemon

I actually worked for the U.S. division of Eurocopter, being American Eurocopter, as their offshore oil and gas helicopter specialist at one point in my career in the rotorcraft industry (most of which was spent working for Part 135 commercial operators - my time at American Eurocopter was the only instance where I worked for a helicopter manufacturer). If memory serves me correctly, in order to market the initial AStar version of the AS 350 in the U.S., the manufacturer had to build it with a certain percentage of components or parts made in the U.S. Thus the Lycoming LTS-101 turboshaft engine was used for the AStar....which did not turn out very well as this engine proved to be rather unreliable. In fact, the LTS-101 as used in the AStar was something of a disaster at the time. Later on Eurocopter was allowed to market the AS 350 in the U.S. with a Turbomeca engine and the AStar name was kept. And BTW, Eurocopter, which was previously Aerospatiale, is today known as Airbus Helicopters.

And as for your guess concerning the number of daily flights from NCE to MCM, it was quite a bit more than ten.....so please guess again!

KT550

16 flights in each direction, 32 total.