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Post by Peter Liddell - HJG Admin on Nov 8, 2018 4:13:07 GMT
One more for tonight... Windwalkers Air Country Club Boeing 720-025 circa 1983...    "Limited Charter Operator" officially... seems they were mostly a Casino junket operation operating mostly out of LAS and RNO. I don't have much info otherwise... one and only jetliner, they also owned a Jetstar and a couple Piper twins, but not known if they were operated at the same time. Ex Eastern to Calair to Club America to Ambassadair who became American Trans Air who sold it to Windwalkers in 12/82, then in 11/84 to Airtours Dominicana/Dominicano (had Dominicano on it, but records have Dominicana?) then scrapped in 85. |
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Post by aerofoto - HJG Admin on Nov 8, 2018 11:07:58 GMT
At a quick/initial glance early this morning I thought those titles read "WINEMAKERS"  That one´s about "as rare as a rat with a gold tooth"  Interesting one Peter  Mark C BOG/CO |
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Post by Peter Liddell - HJG Admin on Nov 8, 2018 13:30:13 GMT
Yes well... I figure I should do some of those weird wonderful 707/720/DC-8 operators... there are many out there... I keep finding interesting subjects while doing skims on airliners, planepictures and jetphotos, so I'll keep painting them |
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Post by aerofoto - HJG Admin on Nov 8, 2018 13:50:42 GMT
WELL .... they´re all historic .... so I certainly 2nd that And I think we all learn a bit more about past histoic civil aviation too for their being represented for FS .... and that´s what the "H" in HJG is all about Mark C BOG/CO |
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mark
CV-880
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Post by mark on Jan 7, 2019 17:32:38 GMT
One more for tonight... Windwalkers Air Country Club Boeing 720-025 circa 1983... "Limited Charter Operator" officially... seems they were mostly a Casino junket operation operating mostly out of LAS and RNO. I don't have much info otherwise... one and only jetliner, they also owned a Jetstar and a couple Piper twins, but not known if they were operated at the same time. Ex Eastern to Calair to Club America to Ambassadair who became American Trans Air who sold it to Windwalkers in 12/82, then in 11/84 to Airtours Dominicana/Dominicano (had Dominicano on it, but records have Dominicana?) then scrapped in 85. |
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mark
CV-880
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Post by mark on Jan 7, 2019 19:19:57 GMT
Wow .... what a walk down memory lane ! I was the First Officer for most of the N8711E (Eastern) flying at Windwalkers.
* a bit of trivia... Eastern was the launch customer for the B-727 which was called the “Whisper Jet” if you can imagine that. The JT8D was that much quieter than the straight pipe JT3C on the 720. *
My initial trip on Windwalker One was 12/01/83 CMH-ACA for a 7 day layover. What a transition from flying “Az-Trucks” twice a night to BKL, cancelled checks for a
25 yr old ! They hadn’t done much flying before that, trying to get started up the previous year as a Travel Club based off the success in Indianapolis at Ambassadair. That aircraft was the first for George Mikelsons called “Miss Indy” starting up his travel club and expanding with ATA. Connect the dots..... It was sold to Windwalkers as they tried the same concept in Columbus OH. That was our home base, not LAS. The company flew under Part 125, a large a/c operating under Part 135 rules. The CAB abolishing the rule soon after. I was hired as the 1st full time First Officer as they got a gambling junket contract to “Lost Wages”. As a matter of fact, I was the only co-pilot for the only plane they flew. On days I didn’t fly, I was in the office working up logistics for possible charter trips using a yard stick on a wall map to figure up flight time and fuel burn, no computers. Kentucky Derby in May ‘84 I had a charter to SDF with Gerald Ford onboard and enough politicians and Fortune 500 high powered executives from Ohio that if we had crashed, the state would have been in turmoil. We were by far the heavy iron on the ramp that day. We flew Senator Gary Hart around on his campaign trail May and June that same year. Once sinking into the tarmac at Las Cruces NM while he went river rafting for several hrs. We had to “keep one turning “ alternately because they didn’t have an external start cart. They had to build an air stair from wood to get people on/off and it took darned high power to move the a/c from the soft spots we had sunk into. A few times we had to rent another B-720, N7228U (United) so that our a/c could get some maintenance. Connect the dots.... I flew the last flight of N8711E for Windwalkers on 9/14/84 to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. We flew at M.90 on the way down, so I could make it back on commercial flight for new hire school at American Trans Air the next day. Sure wish I had taken a picture of those fuel flows.
Connecting the dots..... BKL cancelled checks flying an Aztec ..... Eastern and United 720 for Windwalkers.... American Trans Air 727 and L1011.....
New hire United 1986 on, all 3 seats of 727...... Museum of Science and Industry docent for that same 727 I flew before it retired..... quick 4yr stop on the DC10.....
..... and A320 charter flights to.....BKL !
Now Captain B767
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