jrl767

I'll have the next installment ready to go this evening ... it can keep y'all entertained while Mrs767 and I are on a FlyerTalk getaway (60k Alaska miles + $19 for SEA-CDG in J on a 789 -- yes, we're flying Air Tahiti Nui to the Holiday Markets; staying in Colmar, probably venturing to Strasbourg and Basel as well as some of the other small towns)

note that I probably won't be putting in too much FT time before our return next week

kochleffel

I didn't note tail numbers, but I think that some of them, at least, were based at RKV.

Herb687

Lots of different varieties of trijet Falcons from the OG Falcon 50 on up to the amazing Falcon 8X.

Falcon 50 (and its successor the Falcon 50EX) is a narrower tube while all the other trijet Falcons (900, 7X, 8X) share the same wider cross-section tube that is common with the twinjet Falcon 2000 series.

A Falcon 50 of any variety is likely to need a fuel stop westbound on Europe > USA city pairs. Ditto with some F900s, just depends how far east in Europe you're originating and how far west in North America you're going.

Looking at some real-world sales engineering data I had produced for a client, a Falcon 900LX will make it nonstop from Central Europe to the US Mid Atlantic under the conservative assumptions I requested. But make the destination much further south or much further west, you will be stopping for gas westbound.

Buy a beautiful new Falcon 8X on the other hand and you'll easily make it nonstop from anywhere in Central Europe to anywhere in the US48.

Was that a brand new PC-12 being delivered from Switzerland?

jrl767

nope; started in Menorca and had made the eastbound TATL trip a couple days earlier

jrl767

SCENARIO RECAP
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Your job at the Rieck Center for Habitat Studies at Findlay University means you get to travel to a host of interesting places to observe wildlife and discuss conservation strategies with expert naturalists. Findlay is around two hours’ drive from two hub airports, as well as four smaller ones, and all have been part of your travel routine at one or another point.

On a trio of upcoming business trips, you’ll use three of the six nearby airports for the departures and the other three for the returns, because (of course) you’ve pieced together three intriguing “Great Circle” itineraries. You’ll be using the same airport near each of your destinations for both arrival and departure, and each connection point lies on or very close to the great circle route between the departure and arrival airports for that day’s journey.
*************************************

(2)- The second “Great Circle” trip originates at one of the smaller airports and terminates at another.

The online connection on the first travel day involves both an airport and an airline from the first trip, though both flights are on the regional affiliate carrier. Each of the next three days also has an online connection (a different airline each day); two have a regional affiliate flight.

On Days 5 and 6, interline connections will put you aboard three new airlines, and you’ll also fly with a regional affiliate of a different airline from the first trip.

You’ll be on 11 different aircraft types; of those, two three are repeats from the first trip.

(2A)- Airport 3 to Hawk Creek Wildlife Center
(2B)- (the Seat 2A stop) HCWC to the National Railroad Hall of Fame
(2C)- (the jlemon stop) NRHOF to USS Kidd Veterans’ Museum
(2D)- USS Kidd Museum to Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge
(2E)- DNWR to Channel Islands National Park
(2F)- Channel Islands NP to Airport 4

As usual, we’re looking for the three airports, the relevant airline/s, and the two equipment types for each of the six days.

kochleffel

(2A) TOL-IND, US, Dash 8-100; IND-LGA, US, 733.
(2b) JFK-STL, TW, M80; STL-MLI, TW, 717.

moondog

Here is a new version of the XLS that includes trip 2 and kochleffel guesses.

I might take a stab at guessing a few elements myself tomorrow, but my goal for this evening was simply to organize the spreadsheet. Please let me know if it has any structural flaws, and I will make appropriate adjustments. Also, note that the airport columns are AP1, AP2, and AP3; I realize this is a little confusing because we're actually talking about many different airports, but I trust you guys can figure it out. The XLS file is also attached here, so all of you are welcome to tinker with it.

moondog

Both of these routes seem like violations of the great circle rule, btw:


But, PIT almost works for the first one:

And, it gets even better if we use CMH as our starting point (only a one mile difference v direct).

Herb687

I assume that "cheating" is allowed here to the extent we can look up where these NPS sites/tourist attractions are located. But, as always, no cheating in the form of looking at OAGs/timetables/etc. I admit that here in my 2E guess I have cheated and looked up the location of Dungeness NWR. I was going to take a stab at the USS Kidd ones because I'm 98% sure I know where that museum ship is now moored and have actually visited it. But I will leave that guess to a regular poster who lives a lot closer to it

Anyway, 2E Dungeness to Channel Islands:
UA*/OE CLM-SEA J31 (I believe UA Express had a carrier in the PNW that started as another airline but was ultimately merged into WestAir)
AS SEA-SJC 72S
AA*/RM SJC-OXR SWM (ok I also cheated here and looked up the code of the late Wings West)

Ok, if, there's a limit of one connection per daily O&D, I'm revising my guess. I don't think there's any way to get from CLM to OXR with only one connection, so...:
WN SEA-SMF 733
UA*/OE SMF-SBA EM2


**********

(Question 1: Is there a year for this great circle trip?)

(Question 2: Is each day's journey only a single connection or are multi connections involved on some days? Will have to amend my guess if only a single connection is allowed each day)

moondog

1999
jrl767 can correct me in the event I'm mistaken, but I'm pretty sure each day consists of two flights.

I didn't understand the importance of the great circle thing until midway through trip 1, but jrl767 is looking for routes that conform pretty closely with the straight line distance. For example, he would definitely approve of CMH-PIT-LGA, even if that isn't the correct answer. By contrast, I'm nearly certain that backtracking between Ohio and Indiana on the way to NYC will get rejected.

Herb687

I've totally reworked my 2E guess to make it a single-connection and hew closer to the direct distance of the O&D.

moondog

Let's see if this works:

kochleffel

I completely forgot the Great Circle requirement -- it was 2:00 a.m.

Although the routing from CMH is closer to a GC route, CMH is significantly farther from Findlay, so I don't know which to prefer. I think that DTW is actually a wee bit closer. OTOH, I recently flew from ROC which is farther from me than either of those is from Findlay. And if CMH is close enough, FWA and DAY might also be.

moondog

DTW and CLE are both off limits for this round, so we're looking for non-hub airports as the start and end points. I'm not going to make any formal guesses until jrl767 opines on the first batch, but if US is the airline for 2A, I'm pretty sure that PIT is the connecting airport. TMK, US didn't dehub PIT until around 2005.

jrl767

yes, geography “research” is permitted (and in fact expected )

that being said, Hawk Creek Wildlife Center isn’t near NYC

moreover, the criterion “same airport near each destination for both arrival and departure” does *not necessarily* mean the airport nearest to the destination

2A- INCORRECT for all

2B- INCORRECT for all except the destination; MLI is CORRECT