FAH-555 is an L-188 operated and owned by the Honduras Air Force that had been in open storage at Toncontin Airport for the past 13 years. This aircraft was listed on a Honduran Government auction site and came to Air Spray's attention via an internet search. L-188s are becoming a scarce commodity these days, and, after an inspection, Air Spray decided that the aircraft was worthy of a ferry flight to its maintenance headquarters at Red Deer in Alberta, Canada.
This particular aircraft (c/n 1028) started life with American Airlines in 1959 as 'Flagship Dallas' and was later leased to PSA for a couple of months in 1975. PSA eventually bought the aircraft in January 1978 and sold her to the Honduras Air Force in August 1979. For the ferry flight Canadian registration C-GNPB was allocated.
An Air Spray maintenance crew was sent to Honduras on 4 October 2011 to get the aircraft into an airworthy condition for the long ferry flight. Here they also recruited some local personnel to lighten the huge task. The biggest hurdles were found to be the electrical system, the movement of parts into Honduras and sorting out the paperwork required for the aircraft to be de-registered in Honduras. To ease that last issue a local interpreter was also employed to overcome the language barriers when dealing with technicalities.
On 15 December 2011, after a couple of local test flights, FAH-555 finally left Honduras for the last time on a flight to Brownsville, Texas. Two days later the longest leg planned to Casper, Wyoming, took place taking three hours and fifty-two minutes. The next flight was planned to continue to Calgary, Canada, to clear customs, but issues with the aircraft forced the crew into troubleshooting and delaying the departure for a couple of days.
I drove the five hours from Colorado to visit the crew on 19 December 2011, having to drive on black-ice part of the way north. A propeller regulator failure would have forced a three-engined ferry flight, which on its own would not have been a problem, except that a leaking oleo on the right undercarriage would have also required a wheels-down flight. One issue wouldn't have been enough to have stopped the flight, but both together wouldn't have been a good idea, and with the holiday period approaching and spares needed from Red Deer, Air Spray sensibly decided to pick up the crew with one of its Aero Commanders and re-visit the aircraft's issues when more time was available.
A truck and trailer was sent down from Canada to Casper after the holidays to fix the issues with the regulator and sort out any other problems that may have arisen while being left out in the cold and wind at Casper.
A ferry flight permit was obtained on 9 January 2012 and a flight crew was flown to Casper via Denver on the 10th for a planned flight the following day.
Again I drove back north, this time through blowing snow that had my interstate speed down to 20 miles per hour in some places.
After the aircraft was checked over thoroughly it was time to get the old girl free of the ice and snow that had accumulated over the last few weeks. If you are not familiar with Wyoming, it is a very windy state, and on this occasion the snow on the ground was whipped up into small thin peaks in some places. I had all sorts of issues with batteries in the cameras, some lasting for only five to ten exposures before being rendered dead. It was only minus 11 degrees Celsius but the wind must have made it much, much colder. I have never experienced these kinds of issues with batteries before, even in Alaska in minus 25 Celsius temperatures. I blew through all seven batteries with just enough juice to shoot the departure, after keeping a couple in my pockets to keep them warm, only putting them back in the cameras to shoot. When I arrived home later every single battery showed a full charge!
Four Alison Engines Warming Up
Four Alison Engines Warming Up.
So on 11 January a successful wheels-down flight was performed to Lethbridge, Canada, where a delay in customs processing forced the final leg to Red Deer to wait until the the next day where she arrived in her new home on 12 January.
So what does the future hold for this particular aircraft? The engines will certainly be kept as they are becoming harder to source, and the airframe will be inspected and assessed to decide whether she will be ripe for a tanker conversion at a later date. Air Spray already operates seven L-188s in the firefighting air-tanker role and already has another two airframes that can be converted. A further airframe is being converted at this time. With Air Spray, and Buffalo next door, both now sourcing and operating the L-188 Electra, it seems that the worldwide fleet is slowly migrating north where it is hoped they will have a long future.
Air Spray think that the L-188 is an excellent aircraft for tanker work. Kirk Carleton, Director of Maintenance, explains that it has excellent characteristics. "Maintaining a speed during a drop is key, and with those big props, a downhill run can be done without gaining speed. The Allison engines running at 100% give a quick response to power, and with over 90% of the wing surface washed by the propellers, you're making lift as soon as you power up."
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