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Posted by willie singh
on 7/7/2008, 9:11 pm, in reply to "PAN AM STORED 747 AIRCRAFT NEVER USED"
58.174.68.82
--Previous Message--
: Hi everyone i came across this lovely site to
: find the airline i loved and watched grow
: until it was gone. The Queen of the skies
: PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS. Its short name
: PAN AM. i LIVE IN New Zealand and over the
: years i watch many airliners come and go
: from Auckland International airport. Pan Am
: was the first and main all American carrier
: to b the first across the pacific with there
: DC 6 props then they revoltionised the world
: with Boeing and brought the jet age era in
: with there 707 jets then the almighty huge
: Jumbo jet. I got use to many Clipper names
: that visited Auckland and different type
: Rego's and knew most of the regular aircraft
: used on the long haul flights from LAX/ AKL.
: I also got to view the very impressive
: flight deck and under the cargo area's or
: undercarriage bay area of these aircraft
: when they were hangered for the day due to
: cancelation flights across the tasman to
: Australia. Even in the early years where the
: long haul flights terminated in AKL after
: the long flights from the USA.
:
: Strangely enough on a wet Wednesday in April
: of 1976 an unmarked PAN AM 747 made an
: appearance at AKL and was taxied after
: landing to the back of the AIR NEW ZEALAND
: maintance hangers where they housed there
: DC-10-30 jets and there DC-8-52 aircraft
: back then. This 747-121 was very new
: straight from the Boeing plant. Its rego was
: N6001PA with the very thin blue stripe line
: on the passenger windows and the big blue
: ball with the PAN AM logo on the tail. One
: side of the jet had a name Clipper Amazon
: but the other side had Clipper Liberty Bell
: in small painted writing. I always thought
: this was a 747sp jet in later years to come
: when PAN AM ordered these short version baby
: jumbo jets. I am wanting to know from anyone
: who might have seen this aircraft here in NZ
: for three days was this aircraft one that
: never was registered or flew with PAN AM or
: was it a spare aircraft that went into
: storage and never used by PAN AM. I knew
: there where a few Jumbo's that went straight
: from Boeing to the desert storage facility's
: and sat there for a few years before they
: entered service with PAN AM. Can anyone tell
: me why PAN AM stored unused jets like this
: then later put them into service or sold
: them off?. Can anyone tell me what ever
: happened to a PAN AM 747-121 jet called
: Clipper Fleetwing N538PA before it became a
: 747sp jet. I do remember a pilot of N538PA a
: 747sp aircraft that sat at AKL all day and
: was on veiw to schools and the open day for
: the public. His name was CPTN Willie Singh
: and F/O M Kerry who were showing the public
: over this 747sp jet. Thank you
:
: Barry Handolf
: PAN AM PASSENGER plane spotter
: former AIR NEW ZEALND Engineer AKL airport
: 1966-1988.
:
: Hi Barry my good friend I was scolling the board today and just read your message yes I remember you back then we were all very young indeed but you were schooling with your school mates veiwing our PAN AM 747SP jet Clipper Fleetwing that very hot day. Amazing how people are still around and pop up out of the blue. I am very happy and honoured that i can finally make contact with you. I have emailed to you but you host server is not going through. Can you please post it again on this board my friend. Well i retired as a pilot from PAN AM many years back now Then i went onto Ansett Austalia when they where using 727 737 jets back then. I just retired before the Lockerbie incident back in 1988. The answer to some of your question is yes PAN AM did store jets they never used in service we actaully over ordered them, But I am still trying to find out why ther rego's used where very differeent from they rego's PAN AM aircraft had EG. like N747PA or N538PA. Maybe it was the way PAN AM had to put the registered rego's through with the storage facility's as i know today any of the jets going there to be retired have longer rego's on them and not the original airliner rego's in some cases. N6001PA was never used as a PAN AM rego in service. The names Clipper Amazon our PAN AM never used. Unless it was a show jet or some exsamples of names to be put onto the side of the aircraft and later deleted.Clipper Liberty Bell is or was a 747sp jet. She was sold of to UAL like other 747sp jets jet.I flew her on a flight from JFK/LDN with FO/ G HUME F/E M NOTTENHAM 1978 before being re asigned back to N538PA 747sp jet.
I do know for a fact Barry that KLM the Dutch airline had a 747-200 jet called AMAZON wehich is now retired. Its a great name and a famous land mark across the world known to many as the AMAZON forest. I wish our PAN AM had that name but most of the names asigned to PAN AM were of AMERICAN land marks or names of famous people. Also another good friend of mine Mark Burmedze who has a lot of knowlege of our PAN AM might be able to help you and maybe KEN BAKER a engineer from PAN AM can also share some light onto these rego stored jets. Well my friend get back in touch with me. Thank you
Regards
Willie Singh former PAA pilot
PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS
THE QUEEN OF THE SKIE
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