I couldn't find an active thread so I'll start a new one for 2018.

This is a place for discussion, questions and tips about flying rarer aircraft which can be difficult to log. I'll start of by saying Australia is a good place to log the Fokker 70/100. Both majors have inhouse subsidiaries which operate the F100 on the west coast. And VA subcontract some regional flying out of BNE on the east coast with F70/F100 operator Alliance.

I also have a question. I'm planning a trip to europe in Nov/Dec 2018 primarily the Nordic countries. Of particular interest is the BAe ATP. Wikipedia suggests that Nextjet still flies the type and their website confirms this. My question is assuming the information on their website is current which routes do they typically operate? and if so are there any plans to retire the type in 2018?

Also I'm looking to log a Boeing 757-300. Does anyone know which European routes Icelandair typically sends their example on? Looking at the schedules their 757's seem to appear as either 75W or 75T with many more of the former. Am I correct in assuming the 75T is a -300 or is it another -200 subtype?

vhqpa wrote:

I also have a question. I'm planning a trip to europe in Nov/Dec 2018 primarily the Nordic countries. Of particular interest is the BAe ATP. Wikipedia suggests that Nextjet still flies the type and their website confirms this. My question is assuming the information on their website is current which routes do they typically operate?

I am a technology dinosaur with a poor internet connection, so take what I offer with a large pinch of NaCl.

This is the most recent schedule for ATP SE-MEX, showing 2N551/2N554 & 2N592/2N593, plus 2N591, 2N557, 2N57 all within the last 7 days

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/se-mex

Likewise SE-MAK

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/se-mak

Out of the five aircraft listed, these were the only two ATPs I could find recently active, which might be a related to their winter schedule and lack of daylight. Also I cannot guess the future schedule, but armed with those links, you can at least make your own analysis.

If the 753 on Icelandair doesn’t work out you may also try Condor or Thomas Cook UK and their 753’s.

Looking forward to my Yak-42 flight in March...

What routes does Helvetic operate its F100s on currently?

Berne – Calvi 03JUN18 – 12AUG18 1 weekly (Day 7)
Berne – Jerez de la Fronterra 11MAY18 – 03AUG18 1 weekly (Day 5)
Zurich – Calvi eff 13MAY18 1 weekly (Day 7)
Zurich – Olbia eff 14APR18 1 weekly (Day 6)
Zurich – Rostock 18MAY18 – 23SEP18 2 weekly (Day 57)

Munich – Amsterdam 2 daily
Munich – Wroclaw 3 daily
Munich – Zurich 4 daily

I would love to catch the F100 for the first time and might be travelling to Switzerland soon, so this seems like a great opportunity.

If you're still planning a trip to the Nordics in november/december, you will have a hard time flying an ATP. It doesn't seem like they have found a new home. (You might however be able to fly a 737-600.)

The most exotic aircraft in Europe are found in Scotland with LoganAir. They operate a fleet of BN-2 Islander, DHC-6-300 / -400 Twin Otter, Dornier 328, ERJ-145 and Saab 340 / 2000. Some of these aircraft are operated for FlyBE and painted in their colors.

NextJet has filed for bankrupcy a few months ago and doesn't fly anymore, so there goes your chance of flying a BAe ATP. The only ones still flying are with Deraya Air Taxi in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Your best chances of flying a 757-300 are with Condor or Thomas Cook, they use them on popular holiday destinations around the Mediterranean and the Canary islands.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

The most exotic aircraft in Europe are found in Scotland with LoganAir. They operate a fleet of BN-2 Islander, DHC-6-300 / -400 Twin Otter, Dornier 328, ERJ-145 and Saab 340 / 2000. Some of these aircraft are operated for FlyBE and painted in their colors.

I second the suggestion of going to Scotland, it is one of the most amazing places in the world to visit..from flying a Twin Otter onto the beach of Traigh Mhòr on Barra, to island hopping, and the worlds shortest flight on the islands of Orkney. The Flybe franchise is no more, and their fleet are slowly being repainted in their own colours.

Bostrom wrote:

If you're still planning a trip to the Nordics in november/december, you will have a hard time flying an ATP. It doesn't seem like they have found a new home. (You might however be able to fly a 737-600.)

I managed to bag two 600s last week LHR-ARN-LHR.

EricAY05 wrote:

I would love to catch the F100 for the first time and might be travelling to Switzerland soon, so this seems like a great opportunity.

KLM is currently operating some flights with a Carpatair F100. From Flightradar data, usually the first two rotations AMS-HAM and then Edinburgh and Birmingham, but also some other cities. Maybe that fits into your plans.

Well, Motor-Sich airlines is always at your service!
On any of their scheduled flights, you are guaranteed, as a bare minimum, to bag a Yak-40, or An-24 or (world's only, currently civilian operated) An-140. And if stars really align, you might get a substitution and fly an An-74.
https://flymotorsich.com/en/pages/fleet
Their fares are generally low, and service is on-time. Some users here (including this one) have flown them and found the experience good.

But, the route map is somewhat limited:
https://flymotorsich.com/en/routes/
(they also seem to fly to Burgas, at least direct flights are bookable).

You can book a 90 minute interaction with Doc the B-29 (includes 30 minutes of flight time) in ICT. You get a choice of seating (which dictates your price). I get the pleasure of seeing it fly over my house all the time. Flew over my house just yesterday actually.

You can still grab Hi-Fly's A380 operating for Norwegian through 8/22. You are guaranteed business class, but latest reports are that the First class suites are closed off.

$1774 round trip for a lie flat bed is pretty good still. JFK-LGW. I thought about it, but ultimately changed my mind. If I could have gotten the suite, I'd have done it.

You can still grab Hi-Fly's A380 operating for Norwegian through 8/22. You are guaranteed business class, but latest reports are that the First class suites are closed off.

$1774 round trip for a lie flat bed is pretty good still. JFK-LGW. I thought about it, but ultimately changed my mind. If I could have gotten the suite, I'd have done it.

OlafW wrote:

EricAY05 wrote:

I would love to catch the F100 for the first time and might be travelling to Switzerland soon, so this seems like a great opportunity.

KLM is currently operating some flights with a Carpatair F100. From Flightradar data, usually the first two rotations AMS-HAM and then Edinburgh and Birmingham, but also some other cities. Maybe that fits into your plans.

Thanks! Did not know this. I managed to log KLM's F70 right before it was retired. Perhaps the same airline will get me the F100.

I was just looking at the AZAL schedules for the Baku-Dubai flights. Currently operated by their A340-500, it is in the system only until August 24, replaced by basically everything else AZAL has. 757, 767, A320,...
Does anyone if the 345 are to be retired, just going to a check or are deployed on different routes after this month?

are dc - 10s operated by biman still in operation today aren not

wiggy wrote:

are dc - 10s operated by biman still in operation today aren not

News on last DC-10 passenger flight worldwide. Yes, it was on Biman.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/ ... index.html

Somewhere here there is a thread on the topic.

AZAL is a fantastic airline, but their schedule can throw up anything, even days before travel. I booked GYD-DXB-GYD-IST over 2 days, scheduled on the A345 twice and the 767, i got the 767, A345 and my 767 to IST changed to 757, and on the day to an A319

Now that I finally found an excuse to visit Israel, is the famous Ayit flight from Sde Dov to Rosh Pina still active, and which planes are they using for it? Years ago it was a Short 360, but I couldn't find anything, even on their homepage. The Sde Dov flight table shows the flight going twice daily but also with no further information. Does anyone have details or maybe even first hand experience on this?

So I found out by trying: Ayit shut down, the flights between Sde Dov and Rosh Pina are no more. They still appear on the official pages of Sde Dov airport, but that is unfortunately misleading.
No idea though what happened to their planes.

Ayit is mainly a flight school and they do skydiving. That's what most of their fleet is doing. And the SH-360 is flying military charters, you can see it on Flightradar every now and then. We can charter the SH-360 (info from a friend who is on-site this week), it costs EUR 4'500 for a roundtrip to Rosh Pina. Who's in?

Regards,
Loran

Loran wrote:

Who's in?

Me. I was actually just looking at Trans Air Hawaii's sole pax 360 N351TA which appears to have been active around the islands the past few weeks. No idea who it is operating for. Was thinking to investigate the possibility of a charter there.

Loran wrote:

it costs EUR 4'500 for a roundtrip to Rosh Pina. Who's in?

So around 225€ with a full load? That might be worth it next time I'm in Israel...

Flew on their S360 a few years ago from Eilat to Sve Dov, but bizarrely never got billed for the flight.

Loran wrote:

Ayit is mainly a flight school and they do skydiving. That's what most of their fleet is doing. And the SH-360 is flying military charters, you can see it on Flightradar every now and then. We can charter the SH-360 (info from a friend who is on-site this week), it costs EUR 4'500 for a roundtrip to Rosh Pina. Who's in?

Regards,
Loran

Definitely interested!

OlafW wrote:

So around 225€ with a full load? That might be worth it next time I'm in Israel...

Not sure why, but my friend mentioned 10 pax only. Need to check if there is a limit. Or if a shorter flight can be done for less money.
Many pax is always a hassle to organize.

Regards,
Loran

classicjets wrote:

Loran wrote:

Who's in?

Me. I was actually just looking at Trans Air Hawaii's sole pax 360 N351TA which appears to have been active around the islands the past few weeks. No idea who it is operating for. Was thinking to investigate the possibility of a charter there.

Pineapple Air also has a SH-360-300 available for charter in Nassau. May be a little closer to Europe compared to Hawaii to attract more pax. Also with 4x EMB-110s and 3x B99s C402s, S-340s, etc. flying it is quite an attractive aviation enthusiast destination.

However the Carribbean is never as reliable as as the US or Europe. Almost all my flights in the Bahamas got changed in regards to equipment types.

Regards,
Loran

vhqpa wrote:

I'm looking to log a Boeing 757-300.

Did you manage to log a 757-300?

The 753 is the type I have (so far) put the most effort, time and money into logging.

777Jet wrote:

vhqpa wrote:

I'm looking to log a Boeing 757-300.

Did you manage to log a 757-300?

The 753 is the type I have (so far) put the most effort, time and money into logging.

Unfortunately not. I ending up booking two flights with Icelandair one on each 757 variant. My CDG-KEF flight which was a 752 at time of booking got changed to a 763 about 6 months out, and my KEF-OSL which was originally a 753 got changed to a 752 about four weeks out.

But on the trip I did manage to log an A318 (Air France) and 737-600 (SAS) as well as a Twin Otter (Norlandair).

Skyjet is still flying the classic BAe146-100 here in the Philippines from Manila to Caticlan, Siargao, Basco, and Coron. One source says that Royal Air Charter might begin scheduled services with their ex-Swiss RJ100s from Clark to Caticlan. They have been seen doing charters from Cebu to Macau a few months ago.

I had this year (2018) a wonderful ride on SN SSJ100 op. by CityJet - an aircraft I will always prefer over the Airbus A220!
Unfortunately, SN is now retiring the jet already in JANUARY 2019. Adria Airways just ordered the SSJ, but with their financial situation in doubt and Aeroflot just flying to Moscow (visa required) maybe it's the last chance to fly the jet in Western
Europe...

I also managed to get catch a Brussels SSJ last November. I had planned to do another flight this year but that won't happen now...

debonair wrote:

Aeroflot just flying to Moscow (visa required) maybe it's the last chance to fly the jet in Western
Europe...

Aeroflot and Moscow SVO are great ways to connect to other countries. I used to sometimes fly with them to get to places in Eastern Europe or Scandenavia on the Superjet and IL-96, and the transit is a breeze