Around the ramp at the home field, MZJ

MikeD

MikeD

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Maximillian_Jenius said:
That Philippines 747, I believe is a very recent addition. @ChasenSFO on his FB recently posted a pic of a Philippines 747 at teh gate at SFO who's next stop was MZJ.
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Just came in the other day, Chasen gave me a heads up, and this pic is about 3 hours after it landed. Right now, the airline name is painted over in white paint, and the engines are beginning to get removed.

The 737 is a somewhat rare one.....a -600 model.

Sad to see the proud Evergreen planes, especially the Supertanker. Evergreen put a lot of R&D time and effort into that project for the first VLAT aircraft. I watched their test drops there at MZJ, and with 24,000 gallons, it was amazing to see.

desertdog71 said:
If I found myself in Arizona again. Any chance to get a tour?
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Shouldn't be too much an issue. A very interesting place indeed.
 
I flew over Pinal Airpark many time while undergoing my training at ATP at IWA. However we never landed there. I'd like to see that up close one day.
 
Up until January, I worked for a place that did frequent photo flights out to MZJ for plane spotters, so it was interesting to see the process of some airplanes going in and progressing through heavy checks, others being mothballed, and some parted out and scrapped.

For a while, Boeing was storing a few 747-800 freighters out there for customers that didn't want to take delIvery until the economy got better, and I think NASA used to store one of the Shuttle carriers out there until that program ended.

Landing there with students was interesting, since there are Army helicopters based there, as well as the various airplanes for the parachute school, plus occasional engine runs or test flights from 747's.
 
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ndakcfi said:
Up until January, I worked for a place that did frequent photo flights out to MZJ for plane spotters, so it was interesting to see the process of some airplanes going in and progressing through heavy checks, others being mothballed, and some parted out and scrapped.

For a while, Boeing was storing a few 747-800 freighters out there for customers that didn't want to take delIvery until the economy got better, and I think NASA used to store one of the Shuttle carriers out there until that program ended.
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Yes, both shuttle carrier 747s were based here for maintenance by NASA personnel, sad to have seen them gone. For a while, the Dreamlifters were here too.
 
Have the security people lightened up any since Evergreen sold the MRO facility off? I had one of their security guys try and pull me over when I did a taxi back landing with a student, and when another instructor I worked with actually did stop (after the taxiway was blocked with a truck) they tried to go through his phone to see if he'd taken pictures of anything there.
 
On Tanker 979 pictured above, here's the story on these amazing planes, and so sad to see where she is now. In the second video, she's taking off from RW 30 at MZJ at the 1:10 mark, never to do so again.

It's the scrapyard for her......another great piece of history and innovation, now relegated to no engines and baking in the sun, one of the next to see the scrappers blade and torches.


 
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ndakcfi said:
Have the security people lightened up any since Evergreen sold the MRO facility off? I had one of their security guys try and pull me over when I did a taxi back landing with a student, and when another instructor I worked with actually did stop (after the taxiway was blocked with a truck) they tried to go through his phone to see if he'd taken pictures of anything there.
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They seem to have a bit, but they also don't deal with us or otherwise bother us there, so I don't know for the average Joe. Namely, everything on the southwest side of the field is the low-key stuff, however MZJ was a longtime operating base for various things going on in places south of the border, as well as overseas in 'Nam and other places prior to 1976 when Intermountain Aviation owned the place.
 
Nice CNN video........other than the fact at 0:06 where they call a P-2 Neptune a "turboprop"

 
Very cool pics. Like I've said before, I need to rent a GA plane and fly in there one of these days...

Maximillian_Jenius said:
That Philippines 747, I believe is a very recent addition. @ChasenSFO on his FB recently posted a pic of a Philippines 747 at teh gate at SFO who's next stop was MZJ.
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Yessir. I hear the guy who cleared it for its final push, start, and taxi was pretty hot. I'll post some pics I took of it's final push and taxi when I edit them later.
 
MikeD said:
Nice CNN video........other than the fact at 0:06 where they call a P-2 Neptune a "turboprop"
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Maybe it was a 3350 turbo-compound and somebody thought that was the same as a turboprop.

I wonder if any of the turboprop P-2's from Japan made it to the states for firefighting.
 
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