RARE LOCKHEED ELECTRAS STILL FLYING! Air Spray L-188s at Red Deer Regional Airport
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- Red Deer Regional Airport, located about halfway between Calgary and Edmonton, is home to quite possibly the largest number of Lockheed Electras anywhere in the world.
One major tenant there, Air Spray, has 9 active Electras in the fleet along with a few others stored at the airport. That is quite remarkable, since there are just a dozen or so of these late-1950s airliners still active today, all of which are here in Canada.
These planes are used as firefighting air tankers, and are able to carry 3,000 gallons of fire retardant. According to Air Spray, the Electra's speed, performance, and maneuverability, makes it one of the most effective, quote, "large capacity" air tankers for fighting fires.
Each spring, Air Spray is usually pretty busy with training and test flights, before they go out on their contracts across Alberta, B.C., and the Yukon.
I've never actually managed to film one of their Electras flying until now, and a few weeks ago, got two of them going for training flights with a couple of circuits in between.
I'm glad to have finally gotten these rare planes in action, especially with some great sound from those four Allison turboprops! Enjoy the video!
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FLIGHT INFORMATION
Airline: Air Spray (ASB)
Aircraft: Lockheed L-188A Electra (L188)
Flight Number: ASB498T/485T
Livery: Standard
Engines: 4x Allison 501-D13
Registration: C-FDTH/C-GZVM
Route: Red Deer (YQF) - Red Deer (YQF)
Callsign: AIR SPRAY 498/485 Trainer
Runway used: 17
Date filmed: March 2024
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Outro song - "Take Flight" by Nyhtian: • Nyhtian - Take Flight ...
© Alex Praglowski Aviation 2024
This video is the property of Alex Praglowski Aviation and may not be used for any purpose without prior permission. Contact me at the email in the "About" section of my channel for usage.
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Canada gets all the old skool aviation fun
It’s all we can afford.
@@westerlywinds5684 more utter stupidity
@@westerlywinds5684LOL! True!
My first airline flight was in a Lockheed Electra in 1963. It was a thrill. Took off like a jack rabbit. Love that plane!
I was born in 1963. It’s been a while now.
Considering the size of your audience, you should totally shoot them an email to see if you can fly along with one of them! For them it could be some nice publicity and sharing what the job of a fire spray pilot is like, and honestly for us it would be a cool piece of content I don't see anyone else making around youtube!
That was one of my first thoughts when this _excellent_ video began, Alex should beg, bribe or force his way into the cockpit for a flight or two. Some video would be potentially _very_ favorable for Air Spray, if not educational and fascinating, a history lesson and promotion of the incredible job they do with this wonderful airplane.
Thats what i was thinking
I flew them a lot, mostly on American out of Albany, NY in the old days. They vibrated quite a lot! For four engine prop aircraft, they were pretty good, but I preferred the Constellation!
I can tell you right now, that such a request will likely be politely declined. There is a lot of firefighting content - including AirSpray - available online. But a hangar tour may not be out of the question.
@@adrianwapcaplet2773 I can tell you right now, that you never know until you ask! I don't see much content on Lockheed Electra spraying planes, who knows that's just me? Regardless, some companies might be interested in the promotion of their jobs, especially if they have positions to fill. On the other hand, pilots of "retro" planes are often very excited to share their passion, so if they have some say in the matter when management were to bring it up, I'm certain they wouldn't mind. You miss all the shots you don't take!
Air Spray and Buffalo probably have most of the Electras that still fly today.
Was fortunate to get a tour of an Air Spray Electra at Yellowknife a few years ago. The thing that sticks in my mind is the flight deck is HUGE.
Our History ,way to go Girls and Boys ? What a buzz that must be flying History on the way to Work doing a Meaningful Civic engagement ! It must be full on at times to make it happen for the best result , Thank you for your Service at this Dangerous Time (Changing Weather Patterns ) Safe Sky's to you ! who Fly 🦘🇦🇺🇨🇦🦅🇺🇸🌻🇺🇦🦁🇬🇧💪🙏🕊️
AirSpray's 9 and Buffalo's 4 L-188s are the only active Electras in the world. Both companies are finding it difficult to keep them all operational due to a dwindling parts supply, and the realities of having just a single remaining prop overhaul shop for example. Alex's comment in the video: "...pretty much the biggest collection of Electras in the world" should be amended to "the only collection of Electras in the world".
Ive been hauling gravel to a stockpile rite beside the runway at red deer airport . Ive been watching these guys take off and land for a weeks now. Pretty awesome planes
Closing my eyes and listening as the beauties move about, I'm taken back to my days in the Air Force around C-130Es. :)
This is why I watch TH-cam. Thanks man! That first landing was a thing of beauty. Try and weasel an onboard out of these guys.
It's awesome to see Electra's still flying. Thanks for capturing this for us. My first flight as a young child around 1960 was a Western Airlines Electra. My only memory of the flight is how loud it was in the cabin.
C-FVFH (Airspray 489) was originally registered as N1R, and owned by the Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Club.
My first trip in an airplane was in an Electra. I was sent home from a visit to Grandma's in LA. I was a kid in Sunnyvale CA so the sound of the Allison's was familiar to me since Moffett Field NAS was in Sunnyvale and we lived in the approach path of the P-3 Orion's stationed there (Orion = military version of the Electra). Later I worked at Lockheed in Sunnyvale right next to Moffett Field. The Navel Air Station was decommissioned in 1994. The Orions are gone. For decades I have been hearing their sound. When I was in 5th grade kid I could hear them a night warming up for patrol. When I was working at Lockheed saw them as I walked from building to building. They always seemed to be in the air.
Yup, it was a constant parade of P3's where I grew up not too far away in the south bay as well
They made a whistling and a swoosh sound at the same time.
I used to work air traffic in Castlegar, the FSS tower stands right over the refuel/replenish tanks for the Forestry base. Inside, a reinforced wing spar cuts right through the passenger cabin, you have to step over it to walk aft, and the weight of the water/retardant tank is mostly suspended off that. You would not believe how fast these guys can manage a pit stop & get back out to a fire. Their pilots were also the most professional on the radio, it was always a pleasure to work with them every time.
In 1964 I flew to New York from Winnipeg for the worlds Fair. I took a side trip during the two weeks to visit friends of the Family in Rhode Island. The flight was in an Electra. My main memory is how loud it was as well as the vibration. It flew out of LaGuardia. It is still quite the memory after all these years.
Wow. The sound of the Electra is totally etched in my memory flying aboard PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) from the Bay Area to Southern California when I was a kid. Thank you!
Oh yes, I too remember PSA, and there was all those USN P3's out of NAS Moffett as well
Those Electras sound good. They almost are screaming!
While its undeniably awesome to watch tankers in action, doing so from your front porch while they're trying to save your town isn't necessarily the way you want to do it. The people who fly these things are absolutely incredible people.
Flew from Boston to Newark in one in 1971. Remember it had very comfortable seats. Thought that it was an outstanding plane!
Beautiful sound Alex. My love affair with planes began at 13 years old on my inaugaral flight to Toronto, Canada in 1967 on board a Vickers Vanguard turprop. That was some 57 years ago!! Still love the sound of the old propeller engines. Thank you for posting this for us. Too bad you could not be on board doing the actual filming eh?😊😍
Oh Alex this is simply wonderful. These plants look in mint condition. Thank you for going to Red Deer to film this for us. This is indeed a by-gone era. I love it.💖💖🇨🇦
Cool video, thanks for posting.
Airspray Electra's are regular visitors to YRM.
Always a head turner when they buzz my home in Clearwater County.
As a Kamloops resident, I hope we don't see these too much this summer. Our airport CYKA is home to the provincial wildfire headquarters and is the fire base for much of south central B.C. In big fire seasons, we often get extra aircraft in from out of province and we've had these Air Spray Electras (and the Province of Alberta CL-215Ts seen in the photo @0:00) flying in & out of here a lot in recent years.
HI Alex. If I thought the Dash-7's were a great airliner, then the Lockheed L-188s are step above that. Those Alison engines just purr, music to one's ear. Only flown on one between Rio and Sao Paulo on the Varig Air Bridge all those years ago. But boy what a collection of various ex carriers L-188s at Red Deer Reeve Aleutian, Atlantic Airlines, Zantop, Buffalo amongst others. Great video and sound. Well done sir.
Wow, You are the best avation youtuber ever!
What lovely looking and sounding aircraft
Going to be a busy summer for these life savers.
Great work Alex, retired ATC guy who loves seeing the super videos that you produce on anything about airplanes. Keep up the good work.
Alex, you've done a great job for showing us these elegant old birds. thanks.
Tender memories from the 80s when I was a kid and used to watch Varig's Electras come and go in Congonhas, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Thanks for sharing this video.
The only thing missing is the smell of burnt kerosene 😁
I remember watching these big guys while doing my training at skywings a couple years back... magestic beasts and amazing to see pieces of history still serving a purpose
Very nostalgic, made me travel back in time, what a sound and beauty! Thank you.
Beautiful, thanks for going up there and filming these great planes...I too would give a ton of money to go for a ride in the cockpit, I've seen some pics that seem to have a jump-seat in the middle behind the pilots seats. There design started the year I was born!
Love that plane ..used to fly them on the VARIG SP-RJ air bridge in the late 80s / early 90s....the curtains on the windows😀
As someone who has been to red deer many times the highlight of the city is the airport. So many amazing machines tucked away.
Didn’t know these planes existed but this video is super awesome 🙌🏻 🔥
Omg that sound is INCREDIBLE :O
Love it! Thank you Alex!!
Heaven...so glad a few are still active, and that you are capturing the sights and sounds for posterity. Like the stretched, re-engined DC-8s, the Electra is of a particular size, speed, and capacity not superceded in its roles by a more modern aircraft.
I remember when I worked at YQF, way back when you did your Canso video .. being there for 2 years/2 spring times living in Springbrook, they'd occasionally fire up an Electra and I'd have my window open and that would be my alarm clock
So cool, thanks!!
Familiar sounds to those who live near Greenwood, NS. The Auroras of 14 Wing RCAF will be around for a bit longer until the P8 Poseidons arrive. The bass song of the Allison engines is wonderful.
Great memories, great sounds. One of my favorite planes ever. We used to have them in the shuttle service from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for a long time and, as I live close to the airport, used to hear that special sound all the time. Now just jets. Have been in this plane a few times. Very safe and very reliable plane. No accidents here. Used to enjoy that special sitting area in the back, like a special lounge or meeting room.
I flew on one of those things from Cold Bay Alaska to SeaTac directly over the Gulf of Alaska in about 1984 on Reeve Aleutian Airlines. The plane was definitely long in the tooth and had lots of oil leaks coming from the engines. Of course I ended up sitting right next to one of the propellers and it felt like it was going to break off and cut the plane in half. I was glad when the flight was over.
Got the see the engineering for these aircraft once. The 1:1 wing drawings blew my mind.
It nice to this wonderful aircraft still flying. btw love your videos
Fantastic video, Alex! I really enjoyed the sights (and definitely the sounds) of those Alisons, especially on takeoff roll. The Electra is definitely my favorite plane out there, can't wait to see them here in the summer months.
Great video that was Electraflying!....yes yes I went to that....
Wonderful video man!
I remember having to do a double take when driving past YXY one of my first summers in Whitehorse, when there was an Electra and a Short Skyvan right beside each other on the ramp. Each year I have been up here at least one of the electra's have been stationed at YXY, but I have noticed the Dash 8 and BAE 146 more and more up here.
Tanker 498 featured in the video was the Whitehorse-based machine. You can see the Yukon Fire Management decal on the nose of the aircraft (others have the decals from Alberta & BC). AirSpray withdrew their Electra from the Yukon earlier this spring - it will not be going up there this summer. 498 will be based in Alberta, piloted by: www.youtube.com/@Mimihuser/featured
Nice catch, Alex!
I miss watching the CP-140 doing circuits at YYJ, and seeing them on patrol up at YUB. They were quite the aite to see them whiz by at low altitude over the town of Tuktoyaktuk
I flew those a lot in Brazil ( São Paulo- Rio) and was one of the safe airplanes.
For a sec I thought I heard the callsign as “Hairspray “ 😂
Use to watch Electras and DC 6s fly out of the old Municipal airport in Edmonton in the 60s
An absolute crime they shut that airport down.
Nice to see that you were, in our neck of the woods. Was that, a turn & burn
We’re lucky here in NS to hear that engine sound all the time when the CP-140’s are flying around. Gonna be a sad day when they are retired.😢
Saw them daily in Fort Mac. People don't realise how big and noisy these things are until you witness them in person!
Great video Alex on the Airspray Electra's, but it would have been nice to see the inside of this fabulous machine and how the fire fighting gear worked.Also what the cockpit looks like.
Great vid, great sound! Lovely to see real Electras and not P3 😊
🇮🇪 hello from Dublin Ireland 🇮🇪 very good video sharing its wonderful scenery of the airplanes ✈️ 🛩 🛫 ✈️🛩
My childhood memories of shuttling between SDU-CGH on Varig Electra II!
Love to hear that engine sound. Used to hear it day and night till the closed the N.A.S. down. It used to make feel.......................safe.
legendary planes.
At PHL in the 60's, Eastern's and National's Electras were a common sights.
Never saw any AAL planes, however.
Great footage Alex, I gotta make a trip to Red Deer someday to see those!
It's a beautiful aircraft! To me, the most veautiful ruebiprop airlines! I have fond memories of flying in one as a child in the Sixties in the Philippines - Hong Kong to Manila with Cathay Pacidic. But then I also flew other iconic aircraft of it's generation: a Caravelle, also Hong Kong to Manila with Thai Airways. My very first flight was on a Vickers Viscount turboprop - Manila to Hong Kong with Philippine Airlines. Later Manila to Hing Kong, also with Philippine Airlines, in a BAC-111.
What beautiful aircraft they are! Clearly a lot of love and work is going into maintaining them. It would definitely be a thrill to see one flying by when it's NOT due to a wildfire emergency.
I have seen the Buffalo plane on utube a couple of years ago.....but never an Airspray....so thanks....you should ride the Buffalo and head up to the far north.........
My first commercial flight was on an Electra in the Spring of 1966: PSA from Oakland to Burbank. As I remember the fare was less than $15. PSA got absorbed into Southwest and it costs a lot more than $15 to fly from the Bay Area to LA Basin.
Wonderful pics!
Wow! What a beautiful, wonderful airplane! That _sound!_ I'm a career aircraft structures mechanic (and non-career comm/instr pilot) & some of my first work was modifying & updating interiors & exteriors and controlling corrosion on old P-3 Orions. When I first saw the Electra I thought "that looks a lot like a P-3!" Did the P-3 evolve from the Electra? Or is a P-3 literally just a military Electra or a descendant of the design?
in slave lake (lesser) during fighter season they always have 1 of the electras as a part of their fleet. i have seen them scoop water from the shore of the lake as well
C-GZVM Tanker 485 used to fly for Renown that was chartered by the US Navy to fly between NAS North Island and NALF San Clemente Island. Both of my son's and I were fortunate enough to fly on it four times. I had previously flown on L188's on PSA in the 60's.
Curious as to your memories of SC Island. As a lifetime resident of S.CA that island is always interesting. I know it's military but do you remember if there were buildings? A town? Do soldiers live there or is it just a landing strip?
@@kendallevans4079 There are building. They are at the airstrip and there is regular base up on top of the hill that has housing (barracks) a chow hall, a bar, a px and a bowling alley. On the south end there is a research center for San Clemente Island swifts that like to make nests in bomb craters and then there are stacks of containers wrapped in chicken wire and stucco'd to resemble buildings for cruise missile targets. There was also a Russian Village training area with a real MIG. The far South end is all an artillery impact area.
What a beautiful bird. Got a chance to "load" a couple of Airtractors and one Electra 35 years ago in Grande Prairie Air Tanker Base. Dana
The sound and looks of the Electra reminds me of the CP140 Aurora.
I love the L-188 :)
@1:30 Buffalo tanker 56 👍
I flew once, magnificent airplane. Varig airlines from Brazil had 15 units of this outstanding bird. They flew near 740 thousand flights between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo city.
AirSpray has converted at least a couple of former VARIG Electras, which had the old 1970s side-facing lounge banquette seating in the tail of the airplane (has since has been removed, sadly).
Cool!
Nice and smokey!!!
Used to fly around the Aleutian Islands back in the day in these… fittingly operated by Reeve Aleutian Airways. Dutch Harbor , Cold Bay , Adak , Kodiak and others
A number of comments refer to the sound of the Allison engines. Actually, the deep-throated throbbing roar on take off is mostly propellor noise. The engine makes a quite a loud unpleasant howling noise at Flight or Normal rpm as can be heard in the opening scene as the airplane taxis past the camera. Presumably to overcome this noise issue around terminals the engine had a ground idle position where this howl was not apparent. From watching and listening to the video it appears to me that Air Spray do not use the Ground Idle function and leave the engines at Normal or Flight rpm all the time. The Allison engine is a bit unique in that it only has two speeds, Ground Idle (10,000rpm) or Flight/Normal (13,820rpm if my memory is correct). Once the power levers are put in the flight range the engines run at a constant 13,820 rpm regardless of power lever position. As you increase power the prop increases pitch to maintain a constant rpm. This means there is no acceleration lag and power can be increased virtually as fast as you move the power lever, the limiting factor being the speed at which the prop could change pitch. The engine/propellor combination was quite complex and clever with many redundant safety features built in but with simple pilot controls ie. Just a single power lever per engine for all normal operations. The P&W JT3D which I moved on to after the Electra was quite agricultural in comparison.
This is the first video I've seen taken from Red Deer Airport. Airspray used to have several of their old A-26 Invader Spray Planes there, are there still any of those beautiful birds left?
None fighting fires. Not sure what happened to the airframes - mostly acquired by museums and private collectors probably.
I was amazed to discover that two of the Electra's I worked on at the beginning of my aviation career in 1961 are still flying in Canada. C-GHZI at Air Spray and C-FIJX at Buffalo. C-GHZI is famous as the Electra that survived a serious accident at Reeve Aleutian when it was N1968R that figured in a TV documentry. Look up Reeve Aleutian Flight 8 on TH-cam.
I’ve flown on N1969 Reeves Airlines in Alaska. That’s the one the prop came off and slit the control cables. I watched it land in Anchorage and leave the runway. I think Buffalo bought it
No, AirSpray acquired it. It's now Tanker 484 and it's alive & well, fighting fires. If you get up close, you can see the repair patch.
th-cam.com/video/21CNypoKXKA/w-d-xo.html
Great video Alex! Thanks! Check in with Air Spray and Buffalo and see if you can get a ride! That would be a great video!
Solid paint scheme
LOCKHEED !!!?? WOW!! 😯
Eastern Airline had a fleet of “prop jet Electra’s” in the 60’s, extremely noisy,first class seating was in the rear of fuselage with bench seating.
Never flown in an Electra as such but have flown in a Canadian Air Force Aurora in 1993 out of RAF Kinloss in Scotland
Gorgeous
Voei muito no Electra entre Rio e S. Paulo nos anos 80 .
Bebendo whisky e fumando . Bom demais .
Awesome
Hey Alex would you ever consider doing a video about some helicopters?
The sound of those Allisons is awesome and even more so the Tune on those Babies is mighty fine,just that fine wisp under load ! I did a few trips when young Melbourne to Perth via Adelaide Australia always did love the sound of those Engines Spooling up .Did they all run Allisons or was there a variation ? ? Safe Sky's ! !
I hope some would come an idea for part's for Electra planes that are not flying❤
obrigado por postar o video do electra
No CC option Alex?
VIAJEI MUITO NO ELECTRA AQUI NO BRASIL, ENTRE MANAUS E SÃO PAULO NOS ANOS 60.
I will be working with an Electra all summer long.
Very nice. Subbed...
This sucks how is the DC-8 almost retired before this thing
Beauty