WHBM

I believe that the route is from Denver to Sheridan, in Wyoming, and the carrier is charter operator Key Lime Air, who have a fleet of several of them, normally operating sports charters and that sort of work, but have started this subsidised route as a schedule.

By yet another of those coincidences which connect this thread with my current experiences, at just the time this question was being posed I was watching a Do328 JET myself lifting off from London City. Now the 328 JET is a rare bird in Europe as well, and its stablemate the prop aircraft is none too common as well, but in recent months the jet version has taken over from the prop on the London City to Billund in Denmark route. You need to do a double-take at the aircraft to identify just whether it's the turboprop or the jet version. Billund is a place that few outside Denmark will have heard of, but it operates as a sort of "Stansted for Denmark", a second airport outside Copenhagen, convenient for the rest of the country as well. The airline is, surprisingly, British Airways, with the aircraft fully in BA livery, but the actual operator is Sun-Air, of Denmark.

Couple of quick bonus questions then.

BQ1 : What other airline put Billund airport on the map, in the 1960s-70s-80s, with a substantial flight series ? Sterling

BQ2 : What husband-and-wife team ran a notable Do328 turboprop operation out of London City for many years, one which I always enjoyed flying with ? Suckling (later Scot, then Suckling again) Airways

jlemon

Just to add a bit to WHBM's response, Key Lime Air is operating this service as the Denver Connection. I believe we discussed this Dornier 328JET DEN-SHR service awhile back after Seat 2A saw the aircraft in Denver. It also appears this is the only scheduled Dornier 328JET route in the U.S. at the present time.

BTW, still in Houston and now back in my hotel room where I am expecting the Lufthansa A380 departure from IAH to FRA to pass by at a low level shortly......

jrl767

I suspect this was Maersk Air ... if I'm not mistaken, they started out with F-27s, then received a number of new 737-200/-300/-500 jets (I remember their light blue paint scheme being rather common on the delivery ramp at BFI in the early 1980s)

MADPhil

I did not see it but the profusion of aircraft was a bit overwhelming! There were vines around the site and a sign about the vineyard.

Seat 2A

WHBM

Although Maersk did eventually start some flights out of Billund, they mainly focused on Copenhagen at first, and didn't have much presence elsewhere in Denmark as starting points (as opposed to their domestics from Copenhagen) until the 1980s. The carrier I'm thinking of was well established there from the 1960s, with DC-6Bs at first.

jrl767

Sterling?

WHBM

Sterling ?

It was indeed, they ran from Billund, being a cheaper base than Copenhagen, on holiday flights to the Mediterranean for their associated Tjaereborg company, summertime student flights around Europe, and some notable intercontinental holiday trips. We’ve met Pastor Krogager’s adventurous not-so-little airline before, very early in this thread, when discussing the worldwide exploits of their Caravelle fleet, to Bangkok or San Francisco. The last Sterling Caravelle I saw was approaching Heathrow in about 1988. They had no operations themselves into there, it must have been operating a substitute for one of the mainstream airlines, possibly SAS.

Sterling and Maersk (and the No 3 old-time Danish holiday flight operator, Conair) did all eventually merge up, but in the early 2000s got out of their depth against the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet and went under. Some of the old team then started up Jettime, whose combination nowadays of holiday flights from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, winter ski flights to Austria and subcharters to SAS and (surprisingly this year) British Airways, to cover aircraft shortages, looks more than a little like Sterling from long ago.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Sterl...8381c14aa41073

jlemon

One more U.S. National Park accessible via TI D9S service.....

Cuyahoga Valley National Park - Cleveland (CLE)

kochleffel

Does the question require that the national park have been called a national park when there was TI D9S service? Cuyahoga Valley has been a national park only since 2000. It was established as the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area in 1974.

jlemon

I'll guess this was Roy and Merlyn Suckling and the air carrier was Suckling Airways.

I also believe Suckling Airways was then acquired with a name change to Scot Airways which in turn may have provided Dornier 328 aircraft for CityJet.

Seat 2A

Well - for this question I didn't actually specify. It was added on to the first N.P. related question wherein I requested a listing of National Parks that were served by airports that Frontier CVR-580s either flew to or would have flown to had it been a National Park back then. I reckon that ambiguity just carried on...

jlemon

Good Afternoon All!

It's a beautiful day here in south Louisiana following a wild weather event on Thursday night. In fact, that particular storm system chased me all the way from Houston as I headed home Thursday afternoon - and then rapidly intensified as it reached the LFT area before heading across the Atchafalaya basin to the BTR area.

According to a good friend who is the Chief Meteorologist for the CBS affiliate in Baton Rouge, WAFB-TV, we experienced a classic mesoscale convective vortex (MCV) that really got going as it reached southern Louisiana. The result? Winds gusting to 60 and 70 mph, torrential rainfall and very intense lightning. According to my friend, we don't usually see MCV events in our region - and I'm glad we don't! I just finished clearing the back yard of ripped off tree limbs and even had to deploy the chain saw.

I also initiated a rescue of sorts on my way home on Thursday afternoon. As I was driving in the left lane of an expressway in southeast Texas near the Louisiana border, I saw something that gave me pause (no pun intended): a kitten crouched down squarely in the middle of the right lane of the expressway. And behind me in the right lane, an 18 wheeler truck approaching the kitten at around 65 mph. "This is not going to be good", I thought. But then at the last second, the trucker saw the kitten and took his big rig onto the shoulder thus avoiding the little kitty, who still did not move after the huge truck had passed.

Well, folks, at that point I felt I had to do something. I had to try and save that little cat. So I flipped off the cruise control, safely made a rapid u-turn at the first crossover and then accelerated back to the scene at 90 mph (should the highway patrol take an interest, I'll explain the situation to them later). The cat was still there. I hit the four way flashers, stopped in the paved median, flashed my high beams at oncoming traffic and then jumped out of vehicle, ran over to the kitten and scooped it up.

It was at this point I realized I was probably the first human being that little cat had ever come in contact with. It fought like the dickens, hissing, scratching and attempting to bite me. However, I managed to get it safely into the car, turn around and then head home to Louisiana.

Nearly 48 hours later, that kitten is doing fine. It warmed up to us nicely yesterday and finally let us pick it up. Lady K then gave it a flea bath which it was sorely in need of. And then we discovered it was injured. Off to the vet went Lady K and the kitten. The vet first noted it was a boy about two months old and then stated, "I think its right rear leg may have a bone fracture". X-rays confirmed this and treatment was rendered. The little guy now has a splint and a wrapping on the affected leg but is getting around the house on exploration manuevers just fine with a very interested Miss Bella acting as an official escort on her turf (BTW, our little pup and the kitten are getting along just fine after an initial feline hissy fit). Also noted: the kitten's little purr motor is in excellent working condition. And we've already found a home for him at Lady K's sister's horse ranch out in the country once its leg heals. Of course, Lady K and her sister have already named the little guy: Rescue.

So with that, here's a brief set of new quiz items from the 1960's:

1. It's the summer of 1963 and you are in Los Angeles. The phone rings and a request is made: can you be present in Houston for a dinner meeting later in the week? Well, of course you can. And since you are in no big rush, you book a multi-stop direct flight in first class that departs LAX at 7:00am and arrives at Houston Hobby at 4:02pm. This flight makes no less than six intermediate stops en route. Name the airline as well as the equipment you'll be flying on along with all six stops in the order in which they will be made. ANSWERED

2. Identify an airline that operated Lockheed L-188 Electra service into Basra, Iraq (BSR) in 1964. ANSWERED

3. It's the winter of 1966 and you are in Denver. An old friend has invited you for a visit at his new home outside of Kansas City. So you book a flight on a classic milk run flight from DEN to MKC. You'll make seven intermediate stops en route. Name the airline, the equipment and all eight stops in order. ANSWERED

4. It's the summer of 1967 and you are in Fort Worth. You need to travel to Orlando for a meeting. You ascertain there is a direct flight departing from the closest airport to your location which makes three intermediate stops en route. Better yet, a first class seat is available. Identify the airport you'll be departing from along with the airline, the aircraft type and the three intermediate stops in order.

5. Now it's early fall in 1969 and you are in Vancouver, BC. An impending project requires your presence in Inuvik (YEV) in the NWT. You've found a direct flight from YVR to YEV and it is an all day affair with breakfast, lunch and dinner being served en route with six intermediate stops being made. This service also operates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only. Name the airline you'll be flying on, the equipment and all six stops in order. ANSWERED

WHBM

Aha. I think this airline had been operating this route for some 30 years prior to this.

And, having been visiting Vancouver in early September 1969, I might have actually seen this flight depart, as we went to the airport a day before departing back to Britain (on a Wardair 707) to see a relative depart for one of the intermediate stops on this very flight.

jrl767

first of all, very well done for your cat rescue story!

this is almost certainly Continental; this was prior to the 727, and I don't believe their 720s served too many of these milk runs, so the aircraft was likely a Viscount

six stops between LAX and HOU is a bit more problematic, though I recall a question about a similar itinerary in the last year or so ... let's go with these:

1. Phoenix (PHX)
2. Tucson (TUS)
3. El Paso (ELP)
4. Midland/Odessa (MAF)
5. San Antonio (SAT)
6. Austin (AUS)