Kodiak Approach

Here are some shots of a Reeve Aleutian Airways Lockheed L188 "Electra II" on an approach into Runway 26 at Benny Benson State Airport (PADQ) on Kodiak Island, Alaska in the Aleutian Island chain.

This is an interesting approach because of the 2563 foot mountain sitting immediately at the end of the runway. It makes a late go around decision very risky once you're committed to landing - especially if the weather is IMC :eek::eek: Fortunately its a crystal clear VFR day for our approach. Should be a piece of cake.

Some views of our aircraft and scenery on the approach. Reeve was the last world airline to fly the Electra in scheduled passenger service.

Ok - committing to landing. Don't screw this up!!

Down safe and rolling out.

Shutting down on the ramp. We may possibly need a little bigger tow :D

Very nice Bill! Yes, that mountain at the end of the runway, could be very intimidating!

Beautiful scenery, thanks for sharing!

Rick :cool:

Rick, James, & Larry - thanks for looking and the good words - much appreciated.

Looks great as always Bill! What method do you use to share/attach your screenshots? My photos always come up very small or truncated when I manually attach them using "manage attachments" under the "additional options" at the bottom of the page.

Rick: I don't use "Manage Attachments." I use the "Insert Image" icon which lets you select the image and then uploads and puts the capture directly into the post at full size. See this screenshot with arrow indicating the icon. Hope this helps!

OMG an Electra!! ;)

I remember when Air California used them like they were a city bus. Climb aboard and pay a standard fare. Then get off however many stops later you choose!! I'm really sorry that didn't become an aircraft industry standard!!

My only dislike was Air California always flew in a counter clockwise direction. If you wanted to fly from LAX to John Wayne , it was a very short flight. But going back to LAX meant you toured 99.5% of their entire route system and stopped as often as you would making a complete circle of bus stops as well!!.

Michael

OMG an Electra!! ;)

 

I remember when Air California used them like they were a city bus. Climb aboard and pay a standard fare. Then get off however many stops later you choose!! I'm really sorry that didn't become an aircraft industry standard!!

 

My only dislike was Air California always flew in a counter clockwise direction. If you wanted to fly from LAX to John Wayne , it was a very short flight. But going back to LAX meant you toured 99.5% of their entire route system and stopped as often as you would making a complete circle of bus stops as well!!.

 

Michael

You mean these guys? :D I was on a National Airlines Electra with a similar "up and down" east coast itinerary. Left Washington National in DC and stopped in Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Mobile, and ended in New Orleans. I got off in Pensacola.

Reminded me of famous Revree Electra accident when during the flight from Cold Bay to PANC, one of propellers came off and its spinning blades cut off a big hole on bottom of the plane which had to fly all the way over huge water body with gaping hole on bottom of the plane to make emergency landing on PANC. During the flight, the passengers could see from Fl210 through the big hole on the passenger cabin floor the clear view of icy water.

The pilots wanted to shut down the engine one because of fear that the second engine damaged the first one but the maintenance experts at PANC told the pilots through the radio that engine one of any Electra should never never never be shut down during flight because the engine one was providing electrical power and all other sources of power needed to keep Electra stay in air.

Regards,

Aharon

Reminded me of famous Revree Electra accident when during the flight from Cold Bay to PANC, one of propellers came off and its spinning blades cut off a big hole on bottom of the plane which had to fly all the way over huge water body with gaping hole on bottom of the plane to make emergency landing on PANC. During the flight, the passengers could see from Fl210 through the big hole on the passenger cabin floor the clear view of icy water.

 

The pilots wanted to shut down the engine one because of fear that the second engine damaged the first one but the maintenance experts at PANC told the pilots through the radio that engine one of any Electra should never never never be shut down during flight because the engine one was providing electrical power and all other sources of power needed to keep Electra stay in air.

 

Regards,

 

Aharon

Thanks for reminding me of the Reeve mishap. The crew did a fantastic job of getting the airplane back on the ground.

Interestingly there were several similar incidents involving Navy P3 aircraft - which have engines almost identical to the Electra. The Reeve aircraft case involved the #4 (right outboard engine). I believe the P3 incidents involved the #2 (left inboard) engine. In the Reeve situation the prop that separated was furthest from the aircraft. In the P3 cases the engine and prop were right next to the fuselage and manned crew positions unfortunately resulting in some fatalities although the aircraft were able to land safely.