While stationed in Bujumbura in 1990-92, I remember seeing the Aeroflot TU-154 arrive on its (weekly, IIRC) flight from Moscow. Of course it had limited range and had to stop off in various places (were Cyprus, Cairo, Khartoum and Kigali among them?) before Bujumbura. The really interesting arrival, however, was the North Korean TU-154, which arrived once or twice a month, as I remember. I don't imagine anyone could simply walk up and book passage on the flight, although It was listed in the OAG It most likely operated only to serve the far-flung North Korean embassies (there was one in Bujumbura!). We never knew what the North Koreans were doing in their embassy, which of course accommodated the flight crews before they flew off again into the sunrise.

The Bulgarians also used their Tu-154s on long-distance flights. A friend once booked Balkan Airlines Lagos-Sofia-Stockholm.

My own shot of the Mil-12 at Monino, from some years ago

http://images46.fotki.com/v1506/phot...SCN1603-vi.jpg

Excellent shot of the rotorcraft and many thanks to WHBM as well who had an interesting experience just getting into Monino.

Note the twin turboshaft engines beneath each rotor system. Combining gear boxes are utilized to transfer power to the rotors. Also note this aircraft does not have a tail rotor which is not necessary as the main rotors rotate in opposite directions thus negating the requirement for an anti torque device......

And how about a few quick quiz items on a stormy Saturday afternoon in south Louisiana?

Fortunately, my lady and I were able to complete our duties in the yard and gardens before the advent of the precip......and our little lawn mower tractor as well as the weed eater are now safely stored away until next weekend.

So, I think it's time to take a sip of a fine, hand crafted Cajun Bloody Mary and pose a few quiz questions!

1) It's Christmas time in 1989 and you are in New York City. It's very early on a Saturday morning and the weather is downright chilly with snow in the forecast. Fortunately, your old buddy from California still has his catamaran moored near Nassau, Bahamas. So it's time for quick trip south in order to warm up and go sailing!

1-A) You decide the best way to get to JFK Airport is by scheduled helicopter airline service. What heliport will you be flying out of and on what type of helicopter? Also name the helicopter air carrier. ANSWERED

1-B) You've noted there are three airlines flying nonstop from JFK to NAS. On this particular Saturday, all three air carriers are operating wide body equipment on the route. Each aircraft is a different type. Identify all three airlines as well as their respective wide body jetliners. ANSWERED

2) It's the spring of 1995 and you are now in San Francisco. An old friend is down at his second home near Los Cabos in Baja California and has invited you to a party he's throwing. You discover one airline flies four days a week nonstop from SFO to SJD. Name the air carrier and the equipment it operates on the route. ANSWERED

3) Back in spring of 1981, two airlines were flying nonstop between Miami and Grand Cayman. One airline flew only one type of aircraft on the route while the other air carrier operated two different types of equipment. Identify both airlines and the respective aircraft types each carrier flew on the route. ANSWERED

4) Also in the spring of 1981, only one airline was flying nonstop between Miami and Grand Turk. The carrier flew once a week on the route. Name the airline and the equipment it operated on the route. ANSWERED

5) It's still the spring of 1981 and you are in Gainesville, Florida. You need to fly to Miami for a meeting. You discover two airlines operate nonstop jet service from GNV to MIA. Identify both airlines and the aircraft types they operated on the route. ANSWERED

6) Name the only airline that operated the Hawker Siddeley HS-748 turboprop into Boston (BOS). ANSWERED

7) Name the only airline that operated the Hawker Siddeley HS-748 turboprop into New York Newark (EWR). ANSWERED

8) Identify the only airline that operated Boeing 727 Combi service into Boston with an international destination being served from BOS by this flight. Also name the destination. ANSWERED

9) Back in 1990 this airline was operating scheduled passenger jet service to thirteen different destinations in the northeast, mid south and midwest regions of the U.S. However, the aircraft type used for the service was rather unique: it was a business jet. Name the airline and the type of business jet it operated. And if you are feeling rather adventurous, name as many of the thirteen different airports served by this air carrier as you can. ANSWERED

I want to say Alaska with a MadDog (MD-80) -- but as I have mentioned several times in the past weeks, that seems too obvious

wow ... I vaguely remember a short-lived Cessna Citation operation in CVG, CMH, BWI, and BOS ... I want to say "Air Enterprise" or something like that

would this have been QuebecAir (QB)?

1a) New York Helicopter, using S-58T, from East 34th Street heliport
1b) JFK/NAS
Pan American A310
Regal Bahamas L10 (RH)
TWA 747

2) Correct! It was Alaska Air flying nonstop MD-80 service four days a week from SFO to SJD.

9) Enterprise Airlines (BE) is correct! With regard to the specific model of Cessna business jet, I believe they were operating Citation II aircraft. And Enterprise actually competed with much larger air carriers such as Delta on such routes as CVG-CMH and CVG-MEM. Here's a list of the thirteen destinations served by Enterprise with scheduled Citation jet service from their June 3, 1990 system timetable:

Baltimore (BWI)
Boston (BOS)
Cedar Rapids (CID)
Cincinnati (CVG)
Columbus (CMH)
Green Bay (GRB)
Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem (GSO)
Greenville/Spartanburg (GSP)
Hartford/Springfield (BDL)
Memphis (MEM)
Milwaukee (MKE)
New York Kennedy (JFK)
Wilmington (ILM)

This timetable also has a rather interesting little section with the following information: ENTERPRISE...THE CONCORDE CONNECTION - LONDON, ENGLAND

Connecting Citation jet schedules to/from Boston, Columbus and Hartford for BA Concorde service into JFK are then listed.....

No sir, it would not be QB!

And here's a hint: the HS-748 service into BOS and EWR was operated by different airlines.

So please guess again!

1-A) & 1-B) Correct but with one small difference. The quiz item stated that each air carrier was operating a different type of wide body aircraft on the route.....which means that three different types of equipment were being flown between JFK and NAS. And in the case of TWA, that airplane was a Boeing 747!

Pan Am was also operating daily nonstop 72S service on the route in addition to weekend only A310 flights.

Also interesting to see that Regal Bahamas International Airways (RH) was operating daily L-1011 service on the route at this time. They were apparently based in the Bahamas. But other than that, I had never heard of them!

BTW, the Sikorsky S-58T operated by New York Helicopter was actually a converted aircraft. The S-58 started out life as recip powered rotorcraft but then was then converted by many operators to turbine power via the installation of the Pratt & Whitney PT-6 "Twin Pac" following the removal of the piston engine. Thus the "T" designation which also resulted in the S-58T becoming a twin engine helicopter.

I mis-typed TW operating L10, s/b 747!

11) I do not think this one has been answered yet so I'll take a stab at it: Transaero Airlines (UN).

Back in the 90's while taxiing at LAX, I noticed a DC-10-30 emerging from the American Airlines maintenance hangar on the airfield. The aircraft was still wearing AA's basic livery but now had the name "Transaero" instead of "American". I believe AA leased several DC-10-30s to Transaero. I also think that Transaero operates (or operated) equipment formerly flown by United (B777-222) and Continental (B737-524).....

BTW, some Transaero aircraft have the name of the air carrier in Cyrillic rather than English, which looks something like "TPAHCADPO" (although I do not think that's actually a D, it's most likely a Cyrillic character that does not have an English equivalent). I saw a Transaero B747-400 at LAX awhile back with this Cyrillic title.....