Seat 2A

Good morning from El Cajon, CA. Where once I thought I'd be flying SAN-SFO-EWR-BOS today, I'm now driving a rental car over the San Gabriels and up along the Salton Sea to the fabulous desert mecca of Needles, CA. I'm looking forward to the clear, dry desert air. Way too humid along the coast...

Turning now to questions and answers ~

1. What is the name of the song which United Airlines has been using in its advertisements for the past twenty or so years? Who wrote it?


Right on Wally, and you are of course correct - RIB is no song - it's a full fledged musical composition dating back to 1924, just two years before United got its start as Varney Speed Lines.

A mere three minutes separate you from our man from the Salish Sea, so while WB gets first nod, you can bask in the considerable glory of having answered all of the above questions correctly! I wish I had gotten a chance to have flown upon Midwest Express as operated in an all premium class configuration. I can smell those chocolate chip cookies as I type...

Seat 2A

Welcome home, miniliq, and congratulations on not one but TWO correct answers! As to your question, can you tell us on what continent you exceeded 100 mph?

Wally Bird

I love driving in the desert. San Bdoo, over Cajon, Barstow - stop and watch the trains - Needles, Kingman - stop and watch the trains, visit the airplane graveyard - Williams, stop and ride the train.
^

jlemon

And then drop on by a great old brewpub in Flag just south of the tracks for a draft IPA or draft Stout or both......

miniliq

It was Asia (not much help) -- but I planned to experience the high speeds -- unfortunately my conveyance was not available this past Monday.

cs57

6) We better be better, we're BRANIFF.

jlemon

Well, at first I thought this must be National with fond memories of the Sun King logo on the tail of their aircraft.....

And I also remember back in 1972 when a National B727-200 made an emergency landing at Lake Jackson Dow Airport (LJN) south of Houston with a couple of hijackers on board. The 727 barely made it into that little old country airfield (which is no longer in existence)......

But then I thought about my many flights on another carrier on such routings as LAX-MIA (L10), SJU-MIA (L10), MIA-BGI (72S), SFO-LAX (AB3), HOU-MSY-HSV (D9S), BOS-LGA (air shuttle 72S) and so on and so forth......

So let's go with Eastern here (a.k.a. "The Wings of Man").......

Seat 2A

You guys have got it down! Two of my favorite spots are on the Cima Road in Mojave National Monument (UP freights s l o w l y struggle to make their way up the grade to Cima Summit - a 2000 foot climb in just 18 miles) and Goffs Road (40 miles of old Route 66 which parallels the BNSF mainline. I've seen as many as eight freights go by in one 40 mile drive.) And though I've yet to stop in there, I've also heard that the Flagstaff Brewing Company serves up an admirable pint (or two). Now that would be a great place for us to meet sometime...



Union Pacific ES44DC 7690 leads an eastbound freight along Goff's Road



Aircraft bake in the hot desert sun at Kingman Airport
Most all of them will be broken up for scrap

And now it's off to Goff's Road for a bit of train spotting. I'm in Needles, CA where the temperature has already crested 90. It's a great day to be in the desert. With an air-conditioned car and a cooler of ice water!

P.S. Should any of you desire to read about riding a few trains and planes around the southwest (much less the rest of the country), my trip report from last October might have a few pictures you'll like.

Wally Bird

I'm sure those MD-80s in the foreground will soon be plying the skies for Allegiant, if they aren't already .

jlemon

Well, I think ol' Allegiant Air is now hot on the trail of pre-owned A319s which I believe will eventually replace all of their ol' Mad Dogs......

BTW, gorgeous weather here in LFT this afternoon: 71 degrees F, humidity 29 percent, dew point 39 degrees, winds out of the southwest gusting to 15-20 mph with clear, blue skies and not one cloud to be seen......

Seat 2A

A sad sight at Kingman, AZ

Wally, I was out at Kingman a couple of weeks ago. All of the DHL 727-100s are gone - assumedly scrapped - and the scrapper appears to be making his way through the ex-Spanair and SAS MD-80s as well. The above picture was taken two weeks ago. Two other ex-Spanair MD-80s were parked nearby in varying states of scrappiness. This picture was taken down at the far eastern end of the facility, near where the DHL DC-8s are parked.

As Mr. L mentioned above, Allegiant appears to be targeting Airbuses as an older A319 or A320 would certainly be economically preferable to a thirsty old JT8D powered Mad Dog. Hard to believe I flew my first A320 just over 20 years ago!

I didn't see any evidence of imminent scrapping of the bright yellow DHL A300s, 727-200s and DC-8-70s but many of the latter two have had their engines removed along with some cannibalization of doors. flaps, etc.

Wally Bird

Oh dear, I do hope they are not going through a "clean up" campaign. Glad I was there last fall.

jlemon

Ah, I think I've got it.....

13. Nobody's Second Class on SOUTHERN

And I think that's because the "Route of the Aristocrats" never offered a first or business class section on their DC-9-10 and DC-9-30 aircraft. It was all one class, designated "S" for Standard Class.

BTW, my first flight on Southern was on board a Martin 4-0-4 from MEM to HSV. We had connected in MEM from an AA B707 nonstop from LAX. This was back around 1965 and I believe SO had yet to place their first DC9 into service.....

WHBM

Was Southern the only one of the traditional US regional airlines who never had mainstream turboprops, going straight from piston to jets ?

And how many of the traditional majors did the same ?

jlemon

I think Southern may well have been the only U.S. "local service" air carrier to do so with regard to the jump from piston to jet equipment....although SO did operate 19-pax Metro twin turboprops at one point after they had introduced DC9 and D9S aircraft.

Just about every other "local service" airline I can think of (AL, FL, NC, OZ, PI, RW, TI, etc.) operated Fairchild F-27s or FH-227s or Convair 580s/600s/etc., and so on and so forth. Same thing with Aloha and Hawaiian. There were also some smaller Nord 262s out there as well , primarily in the east (AL?), while out west in California, former intrastate carriers Air California and PSA went with L-188 Electras (as did Reeve Aleutian up in Alaska). In addition, FL and OZ operated DHC-6 Twin Otters as well (as did AS and WC) while PI also flew the YS-11 (as did RV).....

As for the majors, two airlines come to mind: Delta (although DL did operate ex-Northeast FH-227s for awhile following their acquisition of NE as well as flying Lockheed L-100 Hercules freighters) and Trans World Airlines, which I do not think ever operated a turboprop: TWA went right into the Boeing 707 and Convair 880....

At least, that's how I remember it....