Seat 2A

Right on! United also served CLE nonstop from LAX.

jrl767

iirc they had mid-day and redeye trips, both of which continued to BWI ... they also ran a redeye LAX-PIT-BWI (which I actually got to ride in F on a company-paid ticket, when F at night was the same as Y in the daytime)

miniliq

2. A lot of suspects here, because within a few year time span that route was served by TI, TW, WA, PS and CO. But for your specific date I'll choose Pacific Southwest with an MD-80, and TWA with a 707 and/or 727.

16. Continental

WHBM

Just breaking in on the hotel "broadband" () here to add a note that, if there were a "Top Five" of favourite old aircraft types from past comments on this thread, one of them is just making her (always a 'her') last operational flight of the type today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-24165590

Shame ! And I'm not even in the country to go and see it.

jrl767

wow

and Airways magazine is featuring the soon-to-be-phased-out DC-8 in this month's issue

Seat 2A

Long live the VC-10!

jlemon

I'll second that!

jlemon

1. As cs57 stated earlier, I believe that Bob Six called off the Continental-Western merger due to the fact he had lost the coin toss concerning the name for the merged air carrier.

I also seem to recall that Mr. Six had chosen tails prior to the coin toss in recognition of the marketing slogan for CO at the time, being "We Really Move Our Tail For You!" as the airline was "The Proud Bird With The Golden Tail" back then. I have diecast metal 1/200 scale B727-100 and B727-200 models in my collection and the CO livery which appears on these aircraft with the "Jetstream" logo on their respective tails remains one of my all-time favorites. Of course, I flew on the old CO a number of times back in those days and they really were a class act.

So what apparently happened is the coin toss turned up heads which meant the merged entity would have been called Western Continental. It appears that Mr. Six was so disappointed that he subsequently called off the merger....

And I'm also looking forward to additional information concerning Bob Six from our esteemed moderator, obscure2k!

jlemon

12. I will guess this was Key Air most likely operating Boeing 727 equipment.

Key Air operated a small hub in Savannah serving domestic destinations in the U.S. as well as several points in the Caribbean and Mexico. I believe they may have also flown MD-80 aircraft before ceasing operations due to financial challenges.

Icecat

You're right. A not so famous incident involving Key Air happened back in 1978 when their plane broke and they couldn't get Idaho State to the football game which resulted in a forfeit.

WHBM

We're back ! Good to see all had fun while we were away. Anyone want to have a last shot at the above ? It was a typical 2013 airport, with apparently nothing beyond 737s and A320s, except a once-daily Dash 8-400 which set off daily into the morning sunlight with that deep droning sound that we also get from the various ones at London City. The only thing about the 737s/A320s, which varied between 20 and 40 departures a day, was the exotic range of carriers, none of them mainstream or a 'national carrier'. By way of a further clue, prominent just a few miles across the sea was another city which had little/no connection and is in its own country with its own airport - and indeed is in another continent !

jrl767

this would seem to limit the possibilities to the eastern Greek islands (Europe) closest to Turkey (Asia) ... having never been farther east than the Netherlands, I am resorting to looking at a map and guessing either Rhodes or Kos

WHBM

Well done jrl; I suspect few in the Western Hemisphere have even heard of Kos, but it's a destination from many European countries. The airport has 8 jet gates, although no jetways, on arrival we were all put in a transfer bus for a 30-second circuit to the terminal, while for departure we just were all walked out, under the floodlights into the warm night, past a Transavia 737-800 heading for Amsterdam and a similar Jetairfly one going home to Brussels.

Maybe you would like to have a shot at our airline; in past times of interest to those of us here they have run One-Elevens, Hawker 748s and Bandeirantes.

jlemon

Interesting to note that Key Air began life as a commuter air carrier based in Sun Valley, Idaho (SUN) operating prop and turboprop equipment such as the Convair 440 (which I believe was the aircraft type involved in the situation you've described above), Beechcraft Queen Air, DHC-6 Twin Otter, Piper Navajo and Piper Cherokee. Back then, the carrier was known as Sun Valley Airlines before a name change to Sun Valley Key Airlines. Another name change was made to Key Airlines and the headquarters was moved to Salt Lake City (SLC). In 1976, the route system included BOI, GJT, OAK, RNO, SLC and SUN as well as a number of small communities in Idaho, Nevada and Utah. Primary routes were SUN-BOI and SUN-SLC.

Then a decision was made to exit sched pax ops and concentrate on charter business. This led to the acquisition of a Boeing 727-100 and the headquarters being moved to Las Vegas (LAS). It appears that Key Air was then purchased by Presidential Airways followed by World Airways but continued to fly under its own name. I also believe that World Airways may have provided DC-10 aircraft for charter flights to Asia and Europe operated in conjunction with Key Air. At any rate, the headquarters was moved to Savannah (SAV) and a decision was made to once again provide sched pax services via the creation of a small hub at SAV initially utilizing B727-100 and B727-200 equipment. Besides domestic services flown nonstop between SAV and ATL, BWI, BOS, EWR, MCO, MDW and PHL, international flights were also operated to ANU, AUA, CUN, CUR, CZM, FPO, MBJ, NAS, STT, STX and SXM. This was apparently the only time Savannah ever had international service.

BTW, I note your location not too far from the Oregon border in the wilds of far northern coastal California. My lady and I just spent a week on the Sonoma County coast at the Timber Cove Inn overlooking the ocean north of Jenner. The Timber Cove Inn is located on CA state highway 1 in the middle of nowhere where the redwoods meet the sea. During our stay, we made repeated successful forays inland to visit various wineries as well as friends. I highly recommend the Timber Cove Inn to anyone who is looking for a romantic getaway in a rustic but luxurious hotel featuring superb cuisine and excellent service with the property being surrounded by incredible natural beauty.......

Seat 2A

Man oh man, all kinds of interesting reading here today! Welcome home to both WHBM and jlemon. What nice destinations you both chose! I've never been to Kos (Pretty impressive on the first call there, jrl!) but I've wandered plenty of back roads through Sonoma County and the Bodega Bay area. My arms got sore after constantly steering all day. Straightaways seem to be few and far between up there! I've not been vacationing per se but have spent a couple of beautiful days in southern California's Joshua Tree National Park that included an interesting diversion to the General George S. Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit, California.

Back to the airways today in pursuit of 1K status with United.

Thanks to jlemon and icecat for the interesting detail on Key Air. I seem to recall having once seen a picture of a DC-10 in Key Air's livery. Does my memory serve me correctly?

There are just two questions left from my most recent set. Both were taken from schedules published in the summer of 1992.

13. Three airlines operated nonstop flights between Atlanta and Orlando. Delta was obviously one of them. What were the other two?

17. You’re flying between Orlando and Mexico City aboard a 737-300. Which airline are you flying aboard?