another bonus round

As much flying as you’ve done over the years, you’re never entirely unprepared when things start to go elliptical. So when IAD weather costs you over an hour of hold time inbound and another hour of departure delay, the fact that you missed your connection to BEY really isn’t a big deal (other than the fact it was aboard a 707 which is fast disappearing from active fleets worldwide). The Pan Am customer service agent at LHR is able to secure space on a different airline to BEY; you’ll depart later that afternoon to an onward connecting point, and continue on that same carrier the next morning on a short flight into BEY. The agent is also able to arrange for overnight accommodations at the connecting point. The new route involves two different aircraft types, one of which is a pleasant surprise.

4G- LHR – AAA
4H- AAA – BEY

Thinking about the question and the pleasant surprise hint, as well as the
The short connecting leg to BEY tells me it might be:

4G Syrian Arab Airways, 747SP LHR-DAM
4H 727 DAM-BEY

wow, that's a combination that would not have come to my mind

4G: RB incorrect, 74L incorrect (although you can hold that thought), DAM incorrect
4H: 727 incorrect -- that being said, I think the "pleasant surprise" with a DAM routing would have been a Caravelle from somewhere in Europe, but the reference OAG doesn't show any airline operating DAM-BEY

I just thought 74Ls were and are exotic enough to be a pleasant surprise. IIRC I saw Iran Air and Syrian Arab ones at LHR T2 at some point after '83.

Having taken advantage of the AZ YYZ-LCA mistake fare (4x, including 2x in a week) and spending quite a bit of time in Cyprus, I bought a meze cookbook and the author was a flight attendant with Olympic (back to the shipping connection) and spent a lot of time on BEY layovers. So how about:

4G Olympic Airways A300 LHR - ATH
4H Olympic 737-200 ATH-BEY

indeed, to my mind as well, a 747SP would fall into the “exotic” category
cookbook always make good souvenirs ;)

4G- OA incorrect, AB3 incorrect, ATH incorrect
4H- 737 incorrect

Then back to my original (and final) guess before I changed it to RB

4G CY Cyprus Airways 707 LCA
4H CY BAC 1-11

:D
I noticed this yesterday, but continuing to research next summer’s South Africa trip for most of the evening (and remembering ~2230 that I wanted to grab about half a dozen half-price AS tickets for Jan/Feb before the flash sale expired at 2359PST) meant I was too preoccupied to reply ... needless to say, I was quite surprised to see your revised answer this morning

4G- CY correct, LCA correct, 707 correct
4H- B11 correct

four down, four to go
 

all flights are in the summer of 1983

5- Hartford beckons next. You’ll need to be there no later than Tuesday morning, but the company won’t spring for the Concorde from Heathrow to JFK on Monday (which would allow you a civilized departure from BEY around noon). Virtually all the schedules out of Beirut force you to overnight in Europe on Sunday, which is an equally unpleasant option. After some digging, though, you find a way to make it work without either an extra hotel stay or a redeye departure: three flights (the first with an unpublished technical stop), three airlines, three different aircraft types. There are actually two options for the second leg, each on a different carrier and each with a different jet; while you recognize the name of one of the airlines, you’ve never heard of the other, but a little investigation reveals the interesting lineage behind its familiar two-letter designator.

5A- BEY– ATH (unpublished technical stop) — BRU, Sabena, 737
5B- ATH — JFK (1) Metro Air 747, (2) Capitol DC-8-61/63
5C- JFK – BDL, Pan Am, 727-200


6- A week later you’re returning to the Middle East, albeit to a rather different locale – Abu Dhabi. Your business obligations will begin with late-morning coffee on Thursday, which dictates a Tuesday departure from BDL. While you could certainly route via Heathrow, you much prefer a longer transatlantic leg, so you book a four-flight sequence (the third with an intermediate stop) involving three airlines and four very different (and rather uncommon) aircraft types. The third flight is also dual-marketed.

6A- BDL – XXX
6B- XXX – YYY
6C- YYY – ZZZ, stop at AAA
6D- ZZZ – AUH


7- The Abu Dhabi project looks like it will wrap up in a week, so you advise the home office that you will be departing late Friday night or early Saturday and taking the following week to vacation in Taos. For some obscure reason, the direct flights to both Charles de Gaulle and Heathrow and Paris (Gulf Air at 2330 and British at 0015, respectively) have no availability between AUH and Doha; the 0055 Sabena flight to Brussels and and the Singapore Airlines departure at 0320 to Athens (and thence Amsterdam) are also completely sold out. Aha! There’s another option with a connection that brings you to a secondary European hub, but the prospect of a forced Saturday overnight in the event of thunderstorms at your US arrival point is enough to make you re-think how to reach Albuquerque. Happily, you find something else that looks almost ideal; best of all, it leaves (and arrives) close to four hours earlier, and the first redeye leg is a nice long one. Both itineraries involve four flights, three different airlines, and three different aircraft types. Bonus points for the route you opted out of taking (HINT: it’s similar to what you flew on the way to AUH, and the flight from your US arrival point to ABQ makes a stop en route).

7A- AUH – XXX
7B- XXX – YYY
7C- YYY – ZZZ
7D- ZZZ – ABQ, stop at AAA on the original candidate itinerary


8- Well now! Your next assignment will take you somewhere you’ve not yet been … Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire). The first orders of business will commence on Monday, so you’ll need to arrive on Sunday. You have Friday dinner reservations in Albuquerque, so you won't be able to depart until Saturday morning; yes, there’s a direct Air Afrique flight departing JFK that evening, but where’s the fun in that? What to do, what to do? How about a very roundabout itinerary, involving six flights on four airlines, with three different aircraft types; the fifth flight makes an enroute stop.

8A- ABQ – DFW, American, 727
8B- DFW — MIA, AA, DC-10
8C- MIA — CCS, Pan Am, DC-10
8D- CCS – LIS, VIASA, DC-10
8E- LIS – FNC — LPA, TAP 737
8F- LPA – ABJ, Iberia, 727

Around 56 years ago, I made my very first journey on board a scheduled commercial airline flight. The air carrier was Pacific Southwest Airlines, perhaps better known as PSA, operating a flight from LAX to SFO and the equipment was a Lockheed L-188 Electra. This flight was a birthday present from my folks which enabled yours truly to visit with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins in the Bay Area. I traveled all by myself at the tender young age of ten. And from that time on, I was hooked on air travel and even worked in the industry for a number of years before retiring last year.

But back to the Electra......

Last night, I just happened to catch a TV show on The Weather Channel here in the U.S. entitled "Ice Pilots NWT" which featured a segment concerning Electra operations flown by Yellowknife-based Buffalo Airways into a seasonal ice runway at Goose Lake in northern Canada. The registration of the Electra in the show is C-GLBA (and it would be interesting to know the history of this particular aircraft). The video imagery of the Electra flying into Goose Lake is superb. It was also apparent that the Buffalo Airways flight crew operating the Electra had a challenging time landing on the ice at Goose Lake due to braking and control issues on the slippery seasonal runway as it was late winter and the ice wasn't going to be around much longer before the annual spring breakup. This episode of "Ice Pilots NWT" is named "Meltdown" and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in watching the iconic Electra in action. I also believe The Weather Channel will once again air the "Meltdown" episode this weekend here in the U.S. :cool:

https://rzjets.net/aircraft/ has the answer. It's a U.S. website, so full dates are month/day/year format:

Lockheed L-188A(F) Electra s/n 1145

N9746C delivered 2/9/61 Western Airlines
converted to freighter 1969
CF-IJJ delivered 3/71 International Jetair Ltd.
N5767 registered 6/71
N9746C registered 10/71 Western Airlines
LN-MOI delivered 8/72 Nordic Air AS
LN-FOH delivered 11/73, wfu 1/97 Fred Olsen Air Transport
OE-ILA registered 9/97 Amerer Air
C-GLBA registered 07/3/07 Buffalo Airways
***

P.S. - It appears The Weather Channel will air the "Meltdown" episode of "Ice Pilots NWT" featuring the L-188 Electra segment twice today (11/23) at 1:00 pm CST and also at 9:00 pm CST.

I’ll need to put an Electra in my next round of itinerary questions :p

And I shall do so as well! :cool:

speaking of itinerary questions ... the four remaining ones do not involve an Electra, although there is one turboprop in there somewhere

Speaking of inclement weather, I've arrived back home and headed down to Denali for Thanksgiving just in time for this advisory:

HIGH WIND WARNING NOW IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM WEDNESDAY TO NOON AKST THURSDAY... * WHAT...South winds gusting to 70 mph expected. * WHERE...Denali. * WHEN...From 1 AM Wednesday to noon AKST Thursday. * IMPACTS...Damaging winds may blow down trees and power lines. Widespread power outages are possible. Travel will be difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Strongest winds will be near passes. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... People should avoid being outside in forested areas and around trees and branches. If possible, remain in the lower levels of your home during the windstorm, and avoid windows. Use caution if you must drive.

Good thing this cabin's built from 10" logs! We are however surrounded by trees. Let's hope none fall on my truck!

Here's wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving (and happy times in general to our pals in other parts of the world) and if and when I find time 'll have a go at jrl767's remaining questions as well as try to put together a few myself. On that note I understand jlemon has already completed a new batch that's sitting ready for your perusal when the time comes.