What plane is this?

[piano]

Recently my brother-in-law took a job on Kwajalien. They flew on a Delta 767 from Orlando to Atlanta, then to Los Angeles, and Honolulu. There they took a government plane on to Kwajalien. I can not figure out what plane my sister is reffering to in her post to me about the flight. Do you know what plane this is?

Here is a quote from her her e-mail to me.

Quote:--------------

You had written a while back about the flight so I am going to try and give you the info you wanted. Here goes:

The plane was called "ATI". it was a government owned commercial cargo plane with seating in the rear for about 35. The cargo area was between us and the pilots. It's the plane that sends the mail to the island. I don't know if that is enough to help you figure out what type of plane it is but that's all I know. It wasn't a military plane although they do use them from time to time for transporting people if there is a problem with this other cargo plane.

Flying southwest around 7am on a Thursday morning we had the wind to our backs so we got to Kwaj in about 4 hours The sun was shining with only a few clouds between us and the ocean. Enough time passed to watch 2 movies and eat some breakfast. We had good weather with some turbulance from the heat and wind. We could see some of the islands to the north of us before we landed but couldn't actually see Kwaj until we were about 10 feet off the ground and even then- it was the beach and the waves!!!!

Hope that answers your questions enough so that you can sim a flight here! Let me know when you come and I'll put on a fresh pot of coffee!!!! LOL

End Quote:---------------

The term "ATI" means nothing to me. Could this be a slang reference by the crew to "their" bird? I would really like to sim the flight, but I need to figure out what aircraft to use.
Can't wait to share that cup of coffee...ha!

Thanks.

Al :-wave

[budreiser]

Don't know what type aircraft but ATI could also mean
Alitalia (Aero Transporti Italiani) or Air Transport International. If this the case, aircraft type could be many.

[rossevenil]

Hi Al

Going by the part of the description regarding the cargo being between pax and flight deck it sounds like it was probably an atr42 or atr72 as the seat approx 35 pax and have the cargo are inbetween.

hope this helps


ross

[Simon Evans]

Gotta be a jet surely? Kwajalein is halfway between nowhere and naff-all. Did they say whether it was a jet or a prop? High wing or low wing?


Simon Evans

[mmm6262]

Good day. Something that came accross my mind was ATI (Air Transport International) cargo airlines. They fly DC-8 for their cargo and maybe the with plane half filled with cargo/mail it would probably fit about 35 people. Thats a really big guess though because you said they used a gov't plane but maybe ATI is gov't owned. Goodluck!

Gabriel Molina
N93002

[mmm6262]

Hey im back, I found this is ATI's website:

ATI has the largest DC-8 Combi fleet in the world. These aircraft are capable of transporting both passengers and cargo on the main deck. They are ideally designed to provide a full range of worldwide services to major corporations, exploration and drilling companies, government agencies and special interest organizations such as cinema and musical productions. Our aircraft are uniquely configured to simultaneously transport 27-33 passengers (mostly business class), 10 pallet positions of freight (88" x 108") plus belly capacity for baggage and cargo.

Very interesting. Check out their site sometime http://www.airtransport.cc/

Hope this helped.

Gabriel Molina
N93002

[piano]

Thanks guys,

I will e-mail them and see if I can get more information about this plane. You all gave some great clues and may serve to jog her memory. She is very understanding of my interests in simming, but she also has a lot going on getting settled into a new situation.

Kwajalien is totally controlled by the U.S. government by lease from the local folks out there. The plane may very well be operated by a commercial airline under contract. I understand that two flights per week are made. This supports most of the needs of a population of about 2500 government employees, including their families. All of them need things that are not available in the local PX, so a lot of "stuff" gets shipped to them from the folks back home.

Since their flight only took about 4 hours to cover the distance of 2200+/- nautical miles, seems it would have to be a jet. It was non-stop, so range is also a consideration.

Anyway, I'll get back to you on this as soon as I get another reply from her.

Thanks again,

Al :-wave

[lsdunch]

Al,

I think Gabriel is spot-on with his assessment. If you want to get a good representation of the plane to fly in FS2k2, go to the Historic Jetliners Group on Avsim:

http://www.avsim.com/hjg/

Under the left-hand selection box, scroll down to Air Transport International (ATI) and you will get to the right page. There are four different DC8 models there, with two in the current paint scheme. Do a search of the file libraries here and you will find some good panels and sounds, as well. I have a few old DC8s from HJG set up, and I quite enjoy flying them.

Have fun with the reenactment. I fly that 767 from MCO to ATL in real life quite a bit, that is a good practise flight for FS too.


Liam S. Dunch
Ex-pat Aussie
Tour Manager, Collette Vacations

[piano]

Received another e-mail from my sis', and yes, it was the ATI company that Gabriel brought to our attention.

Sis', being a mom of three very active rug rats, thought the plane had only one engine per wing...hummm, but I'm thinking she just was too busy to really care....ha! She wasn't sure of her answer on that point. Could it be that only two engines were visible to her from the rear seating position?

The ATI website is brief and to the point. Sounds like a great company to work for. I noticed that they lease planes with or without crews and other support variables. Sis said that the crew was not in military uniform, but non-discriptive uniforms of the type often used by government civilian employees. I have sent an e-mail to ATI for any info they may be willing to share.
In the current terrorist climate it would not sirprise me if they are closed mouth about any air operations. Actually, I only asked about the type of plane they use if indeed they have this flight under contract.

I will post as many confirmed facts as I can about the flight if I can nail down enough of them.

Thanks for the tips on where to get the planes, etc.

Oh, my nephew, age 10, wants to know if I can get off the plane when I land there? ha! I think he wants to show me all the neat little crab and insect varieties he has discovered there. Oh to be a kid again.......:-lol

Al :-wave

[P3_Super_Bee]

ATI flies DC-8's out of PHIK/PHNL. They are a Govenment Contract holder. They do fly US Air Force MAC Flights. According to the guy who answered phone at the Hicham MAC Terminal They fly C-130's(USAF) and DC-8's(ATI) to Kwaj.

http://publish.hometown.aol.com/p3superb/images/675-2fs.jpg

[piano]

Thanks P3 Super Bee!

I knew you would come through if you saw this post!

Don't know if you remembe, but I'm the one who posted a few weeks back about a flight to Kwaj. At that time they thought they would be going by C-130. Now that I know for sure the aircraft used, I can sim the flight again, take some screen shots and e-mail them to the family on Kwaj.

Not meant to slight anyone else who posted, but P3 Super Bee has the inside edge when it comes to anything is the Hawaii area.

Their flight breaks down like this:

Aircraft..........ATI DC-8
Departure.........0700
Flight time.......4 hours aprox
Arrival...........1100 +/-
Altitude..........?????

That's enough for me since I'm doing it just for fun.

Thanks all! Al :-wave