jrl767

11- starting with my usual approach ("How do you eat an elephant? Cut it into bite-size pieces.") ...

• airlines that operated from the west coast to HNL: Northwest (Seattle, Portland), Pan Am (Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles), United (San Francisco, Los Angeles)
• airlines that might have operated a five-stop flight from BAL to the west coast: American, TWA, United
• of the three, AA didn't have much of a presence at BAL, and UA is the only one that served SEA/PDX; since I can't recall any UA timetables of the mid-60s that showed any flights on other airlines, we're probably looking at a TW/PA connection
• I believe PA's HNL operations were almost all 707s by this time, so "the equipment operated by each airline" part of the question therefore points to a Convair 880 on the BAL-California portion of the trip
• so with that, the connection could have been at SFO, and the five stops could have been

1. Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
2. Kansas City (MKC)
3. Albuquerque (ABQ)
4. Phoenix (PHX)
5. LAX

Seat 2A

You know, JW Blue was my first love amongst blended scotches, but over the years I'd have to say my favorite has become the Chivas Regal 21 Year Old Royal Salute, which is still served (Or at least it was as of November 2018) in First Class aboard JAL and Emirates. Honorable mention to The Macallan 17 Year Old Fine Oak Scotch Whisky as proffered aboard Cathay Pacific back in 2011/2012.

As to weather, I awoke this morning to 10" of fresh powder with more on the way. You can read all about it via the link below:

https://forecast.weather.gov/showsig...8#.XnkvqepKipo

22. What significant service change did LAN-Chile introduce in 1970 with regard to one of its international flights?

I'm going to guess that they introduced First Class. For years LAN had served the US with one class Caravelles and 727s. I don't know when LAN took delivery of its first 707 but with a larger airplane capable of reaching Europe, it would make sense from a competitive standpoint to offer First Class.

lamphs

To each of you who regularly contribute to this thread, thanks! I've noticed it in the past, but only recently I've started to read some of the questions and answers. Air travel, at least in the US, has changed so much and it is great to read about both the hardware and the routes from the past!

rustykettel

Reminds me that Eagle produced the Talon as well, for the car/plane quiz.

KT550

Thanks for the update jrl.
There are still 39 on my original list but 17 additional have been found by readers of this thread.

KT

jlemon

23. Yes sir, it was Pan Am operating a B727-100 and the carrier was operating a total of five 727 flights a week from New Orleans at this time. The first stop for all five flights was Merida (MID) and it was there that the routing became varied depending on the specific day of the week. The second stop for the flight in question wasn't Guatemala but the third stop was indeed Managua. And so, you are very close here....please guess again!

jlemon

11. You are off to an excellent start here as it was indeed TWA operating a Convair 880 from Baltimore (BAL) to San Francisco (SFO). The first stop was Chicago O'Hare (ORD) and the fifth stop was Los Angeles (LAX); however, the flight in question did not stop at Kansas City or Phoenix. It did stop at Albuquerque....but ABQ wasn't the third stop. Back to the plus column, the connection was made at San Francisco; however, the connecting flight from SFO nonstop to HNL was not operated by Pan Am nor was the equipment a 707.

jlemon

22. You are on the right track here as the answer includes a route operated by LAN-Chile with a 707....which was indeed new equipment on the route we are looking but wasn't a scheduled service between Chile and Europe. And the answer really doesn't concern the introduction of first class.....it's more about the equipment. Please guess again, sir!

Seat 2A

Alright then, how about LAN retiring its last DC-6? LAN's flight from Santiago to Papeete via Easter Island was one of the last - if not the last - long haul piston engine powered flights in existence.

Some of you may remember my having mentioned this flight as part of my 1969 fantasy journey from London to Sydney inspired by Alexander Frater's book "Beyond The Blue Horizon", during which he attempted to retrace in 1986 the route of Imperial Airways' 1939 flying boat service. This book was kindly referenced to us by WHBM. You'll find a link to that fantasy trip report via the link below:

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Strolling Down Memory Lane Between London and Sydney in 1969

jrl767

11- I was trying to figure out how this wouldn’t be the TW 880 route, since we’ve recently mentioned portions of it a few times, but ABQ-TUS-PHX-LAX wasn’t a viable option, and American dominated both ORD-STL and ORD-TUL/OKC

1. ORD
2. Wichita (ICT)
3. Amarillo (AMA)
4. ABQ
5. LAX

and a tap-in — SFO-HNL was a United DC-8

WHBM

This was indeed a hanger-on, principally because there was no jet fuel supply at Easter Island, the Chilean Air Force also used DC-6Bs for patrols between there and Santiago, so the flight to Tahiti had to stay the same until new fuel facilities were built.

It's 2,300 miles from Santiago to Easter Island, and there is no alternate short of coming back to Santiago, which is beyond the range of the DC-6B. There are thus a range of special procedures, once the aircraft approaches its Point of No Return no other aircraft is allowed to use the runway in case it has a disabling problem and blocks it. Weather and forecast both have to be good, all navigation aids have to be working - in fact they all have to be duplicated, because if they break down how do you get there to fix them ? All this has come into play again recently with the new airport on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, which has the same distance issues.

S2A, do you still get DC-6s at Fairbanks on cargo flights ?

jlemon

22. Correct! And it was quite a long journey for the DC-6 from Santiago to Papeete via Easter Island and then back again.

LAN-Chile replaced its DC-6 service on the route with a 707 on April 1, 1970. Here are the round trip scheds....

LA 130: Santiago (SCL) 2:30a - 9:00a Easter Island (IPC) 8:00a - 3:30p Papeete (PPT)
Freq: LA 130 departs SCL fortnightly every other Tuesday with service discontinued after March 31, 1970
Service class: Y
Equip: DC-6B
Note: LA 130 arrives IPC fortnightly every other Tuesday and then departs for PPT fortnightly every other Wednesday

LA 130: Santiago (SCL) 3:00p - 4:40p Easter Island (IPC) 6:40p - 8:45p Papeete (PPT)
Freq: LA 130 operates weekly every Thursday with service effective April 1, 1970
Service classes: F/Y
Equip: 707

LA 131: Papeete (PPT) 6:00p - 7:00a Easter Island (IPC) 9:00p - 9:00a Santiago (SCL)
Freq: LA 130 departs PPT fortnightly every other Friday with service discontinued after March 31, 1970
Service class: Y
Equip: DC-6B
Note: LA 131 - 14 hour layover at IPC

LA 131: Papeete (PPT) 6:45p - 2:45a Easter Island (IPC) 4:45a - 12:00n Santiago (SCL)
Freq: LA 130 operates weekly every Friday with service effective April 1, 1970
Service classes: F/Y
Equip: 707

jlemon

11. Yep! Here are the scheds.....

TW 157: Baltimore (BAL) 8:45a - 9:30a Chicago O'Hare (ORD) 10:15a - 10:48a Wichita (ICT) 11:25a - 12:17p Amarillo (AMA) 12:50p - 12:38p Albuquerque (ABQ) 1:10p - 2:52p Los Angeles (LAX) 3:20p - 4:22p San Francisco (SFO)
Freq: Daily
Service classes: F/Y
Meal services: Breakfast BAL-ORD, Snack ORD-ICT, Snack in F only AMA-ABQ, Lunch ABQ-LAX, Snack in F only LAX-SFO
Equip: Convair 880

Connecting to......

UA 187: San Francisco (SFO) 5:50p - 7:45p Honolulu (HNL)
Freq: Daily
Service classes: F/Y/K
Meal service: Dinner
Equip: Douglas DC8

Seat 2A

Yes, Sir. Everts Air Cargo currently operates a fleet of eight DC-6s along with two Curtiss C-46s. I live about seven miles from FAI and often hear the distinctive drone of those four Pratt & Whitney "Double Wasp" radial engines as the DC-6s occasionally fly right over my neck of the woods.

https://evertsair.com/pages/company/history.php

jrl767

24- my first thought was Braniff, but the first stop would have been Memphis and they didn't run northbound from MEM ... my second thought was TWA, but they didn't serve MSP until after they acquired Ozark ... and that's when the light came on

this was probably right about the time OZ entered the jet age with their DC-9s, so it's (to me, at least) a logical guess that the flight served their St Louis (STL) hub ... perhaps Des Moines (DSM) thereafter