A Day Aboard an Air North Hawker Siddeley HS748
page
1
2
3
4
(next)
A Day Aboard an Air North Hawker Siddeley HS748
Propliner Magazine, Issue 110 - Spring 2007
By Henry Tenby
Although built in substantial numbers and remaining in service in various remote corners of the world, the Hawker Siddeley 748 is getting scarcer. In August, 2006, Henry Tenby was fortunate enough to spend a day plying the Air North network from Whitehorse aboard one of their three examples of this classic British airliner. And here is his story.
Air North of Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon Territory, operates three Hawker Siddeley HS748s on their Northern scheduled flights. The type’s success in Canada is owed to the fact that there is no replacement for a 748, other than a 748. Quite simply put, the rugged 748s do a job that no other aeroplane can match. They safely operate from grass, gravel or dirt airstrips in extreme weather conditions, can easily rotate between passenger and freight duties, and the aircraft is an extremely easy aeroplane to fly, as well as a steady money maker for her owners.
Advert - Classic airline DVDs
LAP Paraguay DC-8-63
Eastern Airlines Connie
Nepal Aviation Holiday
Lockheed L-188
Viscount Vanguard
Beirut Airport
DC-4 DC-3 C-46 PBY Propliners
BOAC BEA Stratocruiser
Boeing 707 720 action
Istanbul Ataturk Airport
HS748 action
Reeve Lockheed Electra
Pacific Western Airlines
MEA 707
Kai Tak Airport
zip 737-200 footage
LAP Paraguay 707
Rugged DC-3 replacement
Air North acquired their first two 748s (C-FYDU and C-FYDY) from New Zealand’s Mount Cook Airlines in 1996, where they had spent their previous years flying passengers to the Mount Cook airstrip. Air North acquired the two 748s to replace the DC-3s that had been the company’s workhorses pretty much since the company’s founding by Joe Sparling and Tom “Ace” Wood in 1977.
The DC-3s served the company well, but the airline’s operation had outgrown the DC-3s, and none other than the HS748 was deemed the perfect replacement. Air North was so pleased with their first two 748s, that a third 748 was acquired two years later in 1998, in the form of C-FAGI, a Canadian 748 veteran having previously served in Manitoba and Quebec with other operators.
Designed by Avro (which later became Hawker Siddeley), the HS748 boasts a two-wheel nose gear, and unlike its main competitor the F27 which only has a one-wheel nose gear, the 748 with its equally rugged main gear, was purpose designed by Avro to meet an RAF requirement that the aircraft could safely operate with a 12,000 pound payload, from muddy, bumpy, non-paved strips, as typical of the English country side in winter.
This was exactly the same requirement Air North needed to satisfy in providing safe, reliable and profitable air service to Old Crow, an isolated Aboriginal community situated 800 kms North of Whitehorse. The village of Old Crow is the most northern community in Canada’s Yukon, and is located at the confluence of the Crow and Porcupine rivers, and today, is the home of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, which numbers 300 people. Old Crow has a short gravel airstrip, and everything must be flown into the community, as there is no road. Many other northern Canadian and Yukon airstrips are unpaved, and the HS748 is perfect for serving these destinations.
Very few Northern Canadian communities are large enough to support schedule air service in their own right, specially with a large aircraft like the HS748. Therefore the communities have to be linked together by a milk-run service, and Air North’s impeccable 748s do just that. During winter months, the fleet of 748s maintain Air North’s Monday through Friday Whitehorse-Dawson City-Old Crow-Inuvik-Old Crow-Dawson City-Whitehorse schedule, which involves approximately 6.5 hours of flying time and 8 hours traveling time for the round trip. During the summer tourist season, the schedule is modified with twice weekly service to Fairbanks, Alaska (replacing two of Inuvik services).
|
Articles & photos are copyright
and protected property of Henry Tenby. Reproduction prohibited without permission.
|
|
