Originally Posted by Seat 2A (Post 19244853)

Thanks again for the great questions, jlemon. I'll try a few more this morning and if nobody has answered some of the other questions by later today, I'll take a stab at them then.

Originally Posted by Skylink USA

Oh, I started a mess by mentioning Bangor and BCAL!

Originally Posted by jlemon

As you well know, my quiz items only deal with scheduled passenger operations! And therein lies the question: was BCal also approved to board and deplane pax at BGR as well?

Originally Posted by jlemon (Post 19237504)

2) At one point, British Caledonian provided shuttle service between London Heathrow (LHR) and London Gatwick (LGW) airports. Identify the aircraft type used for this service.

Originally Posted by jlemon (Post 19245090)

And the equipment? The iconic DC9 series 10 in every case.

It's always very interesting to see how many airlines back in the day operated "milk runs" with jet equipment. And I would have loved to have flown on SO 321 from St. Louis to New York LGA on a beautiful day with the six (6) intermediate stops en route!

OMG positively orgasmic - better than the SEA-JNU run on AS - only the HNL-GUM formerly CO and now UA would be better


Well, I mentioned Labor Day earlier so that's what I'll do at this point: go labor! my significant other has mentioned that our brick front entrance could greatly benefit from a good pressure washing.....so I think I'll fix a nice Cajun bloody mary (it's almost 1300 hours local here) and have at it!

Originally Posted by jlemon (Post 19245090)

It's always very interesting to see how many airlines back in the day operated "milk runs" with jet equipment. And I would have loved to have flown on SO 321 from St. Louis to New York LGA on a beautiful day with the six (6) intermediate stops en route!

Originally Posted by WHBM (Post 19245852)

No, not at all. I regard it as quite genuine :)

Well, something to comment here is a difference between US and European scheduled services. In recent years this have tended to disappear, but in past decades there were two levels of service in Europe, the "standard" schedules, and the "holiday flights". These, unlike US practice, were very regular, weekly (or multiple-weekly) services, which you could just go into a travel agent and buy from the flyer straight off, which showed a regular operation, departure times, timetables, etc. They weren't in the OAG, or the European equivalent, the ABC, because they weren't IATA carriers, but they operated on a licence for a "regular operation", as opposed to individual charters. There was never, as far as I can tell, any operation like this in the USA, where charters just seem to be one-offs, for the military, sports teams, etc, using old aircraft as required. In contrast, the holiday flight operators in Europe achieved some of the highest flight time per year on their type of aircraft, on aircraft often newer than British Airways.

To me, if there was a timetable in the travel agency with regular flights you could just book, that's a scheduled operation. Any of you airliner buffs maybe wondered how carriers like Monarch from the UK managed to buy brand-new 757s in the first year of production, or similar purchases. These are the sort of flights they were used on.

An early name was Laker, making their transition from just charters, who were prevented for some years from starting their Skytrain service, but who used their DC10s bought for the service on exactly this sort of operation. Laker bought a number of DC10-10 models, which didn't have the range for Florida or the west coast, so they stopped at Bangor to refuel, but also changed crews, and the pax went through US immigration there.

jlemon's question was set in 1983, and Laker had gone bankrupt in 1982. British Caledonian immediately took over their holiday flights and much of their fleet, the One-Elevens and a couple of the DC10-10s. If you thought B Cal only had the intercontinental DC10 models, here's what else they had:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Briti...cd1f294dc449d4

an ex-Laker aircraft.

So how does Bangor come into it ? Well, they had a full flight programme for two dedicated aircraft full time, which operated from London Gatwick, but also Manchester and Prestwick, to Bangor, and then to a range of points. 1983's timetable featured Orlando, Tampa, LAX and Oakland (sold as San Francisco), as well as points served non-stop like Toronto.

So how did all those B Cal crews come to be at Bangor ? Well, they typically operated London to Bangor, arriving lunchtime, where the passengers got off for immigration while there was a crew change. A day or two later the crew picked up the next flight and operated say Bangor-Orlando-Bangor, getting back late evening when there was another crew change. A day or so later again they picked up the next flight, maybe coming from LAX, and took it home to London. Next week, they were likely on a schedule nonstop to Houston or wherever.

Oh. One last point. This will hopefully not have my good friend jlemon in apoplexy !

Well of course. They had to deplane on the outbound to go through immigration, and then board again :)

Incidentally, regarding that freighter flight. B Cal had daily DC10 flights from London to Houston, and carried a huge amount of freight, much for the oil industry. This was so heavy that they operated additional 707 freighter flights. These transited through Bangor as well, with the crew change, and as loads were heavier westbound than east they saw a chance to move some of that bulk seafood, much of which went on from Gatwick to France and Belgium on other B Cal flights.

UK aviation still has lots of tales about "Bangor days", because British Caley (pronounced "Cally", the universal name for them over here), were not the only operator of such flights. And this is about a passenger they did take to Bangor. A somewhat-dim passenger, travelling London to Oakland with a reservation at maybe the Sheraton in San Francisco. Gets to Bangor, off the plane, through immigration, collect bags from carousel and through customs. Then the bags were normally collected again but he had completely misunderstood the multiple instructions about what was going on, took his bag out of the terminal, and got a cab to "The Sheraton". Well there is one, it seems, cab takes him there, goes in, no reservation of course. Never mind, they have spare rooms, so he checks in, has a shower, takes a nap (possibly interrupted by a departing DC10), then later that evening goes downstairs and enquires at the front desk "where are the Cablecars .... ?"

Originally Posted by Seat 2A (Post 19247752)

Back in the 1970s, milk runs were my best friend. All I wanted to do was maximize my time in the air, aboard as many different airlines as possible. With absolutely zero interest in flying aboard private planes, I was all about flying aboard airliners, taking "air tours" across this great broad continent of ours.

Back in 1977, I logged the following flight in First Class aboard Alaska 65, the milk run between Seattle and Anchorage. Today's flight 65 is but a shadow of its former glorious routing, which went SEA-KTN-WRG-PSG-JNU-YAK-CDV-ANC aboard a 727-100 when I flew it. The entire journey took a little over 8 hours and offered full breakfast and a sandwich plate enroute.

Another great flight was had aboard a Hughes Airwest DC-9-30 between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles stopping in PDX, RDM, LMF, SMF, SFO and MRY enroute.

Hughes Airwest also came through on a roundtrip flight between Denver and Seattle in 1980 routing DEN-GTF-FCA-GEG-SEA, returning SEA-GEG-LWS-BOI-TWF-SLC-DEN aboard a pair of DC-9-30s.

The only transcon milkrun I ever did was aboard Eastern in 1977 from Portland, OR to New York-JFK stopping in SEA, STL, CLT and RDU along the way.

One flight I never did get a chance to fly but always wish I had was NW 109, a 727-200 departing Newark at 7:15a headed for Seattle with intermediate stops at PHL, CLE, ORD,MSP, JMS, BIS,BIL, HLN, MSO, GEG and PDX. Arrival in Seattle was twelve hours later at 7:19pm. A breakfast and three snacks were served enroute. Back in those golden days of jet travel in America, a snack was often larger than the so-called "meals" offered on today's services.

I don't know if there's any interest on this thread for such things (in which case simply ignore them) but here are a couple of links to trip reports I wrote describing some of those flights from the 1970s...

Denver to Honolulu via Canada in 1976 (On a trip that was supposed to go to Mexico!)

DENVER TO ALASKA ROUNDTRIP via SO, TI, DL, AA, AS, WC, CP, PW and UA

Originally Posted by jlemon (Post 19249608)

Excellent commentary, WHBM, and very much appreciated. .....Several additional questions: Did BCal ever operate scheduled B747 service to the US and what course of action did BA take specifically with regard to BCal's US services following the acquisition of BCal by British Airways?
!

Originally Posted by jlemon (Post 19249608)

Did BCal ever operate scheduled B747 service to the US and what course of action did BA take specifically with regard to BCal's US services following the acquisition of BCal by British Airways?

Originally Posted by Cattle Airlines

747: Yes. Occasional equipment substitution and LAX service.
BA: Continued most of them but ended some, such as STL service. Continued from Gatwick. Flown as BA. Part of the airline continued as charter services, flying under the Caledonian name.

Originally Posted by jlemon (Post 19251715)

The above questions highlighted in bold are still up for grabs.....

12) In the summer of 1968, this airline offered a fare they called the "Consecutive Executive". For a flat charge of $65.00, one could fly as much as one wanted for five (5) consecutive days on a Monday through Friday basis. The only catch was that this carrier's international routes were not included in the deal. However, the airline only served three somewhat obscure international destinations at the time. Name the air carrier that offered this special fare.

Originally Posted by Cattle Airlines (Post 19254002)

The answer is Mohawk Airlines, which was absorbed in Allegheny (USAir) and eventually America West (which took the U.S. Airways name)

I am reasonably certain of this so I will submit the next question. Hopefully, this will count because it does not involve jet aircraft.

In the mid 1980's, say September 4, 1984 if there needs to be a definitive date, what airline served JGP-IAH and what aircraft did they use? Hint: the aircraft could not carry anywhere near 19 passengers, the cutoff for not needing a flight attendant.

JGP is Greenway Plaza, Houston.
IAH is Houston Intercontinental Airport (now George Bush Intercontinental Airport)

Originally Posted by jlemon (Post 19256946)

Mohawk is a very good guess as this local service carrier was known for offering these type of deals.

However, the airline was actually Trans-Texas Airways (TTa). ...
And as for the JGP-IAH question, I forget the name of the company but it was a helicopter operator (Executive Helicopters? Air Link? Lone Star Helicopters?) most likely flying a Bell 206L "Long Ranger" or Bell 222 rotorcraft.....

Originally Posted by jlemon (Post 19251715)

The above questions highlighted in bold are still up for grabs....23) This airline operated Boeing 727-200 service at this time from Edmonton (YEG) and Calgary (YYC) to Phoenix (PHX). Name the carrier..