Around the ramp at the home field, MZJ

The last remaining aircraft of Delta’s 747-400 fleet, formerly 747-451s of Northwest Airlines, the last are fairly quickly being scrapped.

View attachment 57883

Saw that these guys are selling parts on ebay off da old birds:


Some highlights:

Window skin $350

s-l225.jpg


Lighting control panel $350

s-l225.jpg


Two economy SEAts $250

s-l225.jpg


First class seat $300

s-l225.jpg


First class seat compartment $1750

s-l225.jpg
 
Kinda surprised to see NK 319s out there. At the beginning of this thing, they were talking about how great it was having them in the fleet to serve required service markets with little demand.
 
Kinda surprised to see NK 319s out there. At the beginning of this thing, they were talking about how great it was having them in the fleet to serve required service markets with little demand.
They’re mostly owned, where as most of the other planes are leased. One of the ASM’s make sense to operate birds at 182 seats, rather than 145.
It also optimizes FA pairings.
 
A rare bird here. Lockheed C-130A 54-1632, a very early A model with the original “Roman nose” without the wx radar. Very few of these A-models were built with this nose configuration. 632 last served with the 924th Tactical Airlift Group, AFRES, Bergstrom AFB, Tx. It was retired on 6 June 1976 to the boneyard here at DMA, where it still resides today in a scrapyard, 45 years after its retirement to here.

Photos: MikeD

491A66E7-C61C-4963-9914-D14E76384459.jpeg
FD514977-A7D0-4187-A066-7A122E188225.jpeg
 
A rare bird here. Lockheed C-130A 54-1632, a very early A model with the original “Roman nose” without the wx radar. Very few of these A-models were built with this nose configuration. 632 last served with the 924th Tactical Airlift Group, AFRES, Bergstrom AFB, Tx. It was retired on 6 June 1976 to the boneyard here at DMA, where it still resides today in a scrapyard, 45 years after its retirement to here.

Photos: MikeD

View attachment 57959View attachment 57960
Probably had the 3 blade Aeroproducts propellers. Good thing it's sitting there, the harmonics those props set up on the C-130 were not good for wing spar longevity. The C-130 and B-52 have run for so long, when does it end?
 
632 last served with the 924th Tactical Airlift Group, AFRES, Bergstrom AFB, Tx. It was retired on 6 June 1976 to the boneyard here at DMA, where it still resides today in a scrapyard, 45 years after its retirement to here.
Mike, what’s the reason the plane has sat for so many years in the boneyard and hasn’t been scrapped yet?
 
A rare bird here. Lockheed C-130A 54-1632, a very early A model with the original “Roman nose” without the wx radar. Very few of these A-models were built with this nose configuration. 632 last served with the 924th Tactical Airlift Group, AFRES, Bergstrom AFB, Tx. It was retired on 6 June 1976 to the boneyard here at DMA, where it still resides today in a scrapyard, 45 years after its retirement to here.

Photos: MikeD


Top pic: Is that a Hawkeye to the left of the nose?
 
That looks like a Hawkeye and looks like a Grumman Albatross to the left behind the tail. What's that doing there? That's worth a lot of money in the civilian world. My question is that a Convair or an L188/P3 tail to the right side of the frame on the lower pic.
 
Mike, what’s the reason the plane has sat for so many years in the boneyard and hasn’t been scrapped yet?

Top pic: Is that a Hawkeye to the left of the nose?


Crawling down the rabbit hole on a cold snowy day...

This was the 21st Herc produced and had been converted to TC-130A and RC-130A during its lifetime before reverting back to its original designation.

That looks like a Hawkeye and looks like a Grumman Albatross to the left behind the tail. What's that doing there? That's worth a lot of money in the civilian world. My question is that a Convair or an L188/P3 tail to the right side of the frame on the lower pic.


My guess is that's one of the handful of private boneyards around there?

All of you are correct.

It’s been sitting in a yard just outside the base since the mid 1980s. Was going to be a parts bird for some other -130s, but hasn’t been used as such. Just mainly missing its props, and those are still with it.

there are a number of ex-USN and USCG Grumman HU-16 Albatross planes still here, but which would need a good amount of work to refurbish. The plane to the right of the picture is a Convair C-131D that used to be the support plane for the North Dakota Air Guard at Fargo, and was one of the last of its type in USAF service. It’s complete and ready to fly.
 
12 of these Norwegian jets now live across the runway from our hangar over in west storage. Not sure what their disposition will be, but they don’t have parts being removed from them.

D5C16B14-2B7C-4459-9758-ED1F7E960232.jpeg
 
This one came in today, I think a 747-8. Made a descending spiral onto downwind, and a fairly short approach base/final and ended up high, resulting in a go-around, with closed traffic to a full stop on the short 6800’ runway here. Nice pic opportunity while shut down in the taxiway grass.

D1539361-3A6B-465D-95DD-86346566AA85.jpeg
 
This one came in today, I think a 747-8. Made a descending spiral onto downwind, and a fairly short approach base/final and ended up high, resulting in a go-around, with closed traffic to a full stop on the short 6800’ runway here. Nice pic opportunity while shut down in the taxiway grass.

View attachment 64352

I have never been fortunate enough to ever in my 45 yrs. While traveling either from TUS to PHX or vice versa. To see a plane either land or takeoff at MZJ. I always crane my head over looking whenever I pass too.
 
I have never been fortunate enough to ever in my 45 yrs. While traveling either from TUS to PHX or vice versa. To see a plane either land or takeoff at MZJ. I always crane my head over looking whenever I pass too.

smaller planes come and go often, especially the based helos and jump planes. The airliners though, are far more random in their comings and goings. Normally always by day. Night ops are very rare for them. I’ve seen a few night departures. Night landings are extremely rare by them, I’ve only seen one, and that was the 737 whose landing lights I began to illuminate my cabin from my 6 o’clock before I even realized there was someone landing. With only medium intensity runway lights, no VASI/PAPI, and no instrument approaches, night airliner landings are an extreme rarity.
 
I'm going to TUS for my initial on the Challenger in a few days. What's the best way to tour the field on one of my days off?
 

You know who doesn't have a 1,500 hour rule for FOs?

I can't say that I know anything super specific (because I don't) - but I do spend a lot of time talking to network planners for a living.

Kinds of 14 CFR 135 Certificate Operating Authorities
Another important consideration when starting the certification process is for the applicant to determine the kind of operations that they wish to conduct. 14 CFR 135 certificate holders can conduct On-demand operations, which may include limited scheduled operations, or Scheduled (Commuter) operations, which allow unlimited scheduled operations as well as On-demand operations. Each kind of operation, On-demand or Commuter, has specific limitations associated with them. These include the number of passenger seats that can be installed on the aircraft, maximum payload limits, and whether turbo-jet aircraft can be used in that kind of operation.

  1. On-demand
  2. On-demand operations can be conducted in airplanes that have a passenger seating configuration of 30 seats or less, a maximum payload capacity of 7500 pounds, or in any rotorcraft.
 
Back
Top