Scudrunners

No, not the operator that flew an ATR into a tree, the little Israeli bizjet:
[img]https://cdn.jetphotos.com/400/1/28260_1194890494.jpg[/img]

At work the other day we were talking about contracts and equipment and fleet changes and all that junk and I (because I'm not a thinker) piped up with, "Why not a Westwind?"  A quick look through current ads showed they're an awful lot cheaper than I was expecting and that got me to wondering why.  All the ones for sale were also pretty low time given their age as well and put together we assumed there must be some fatal flaw to them.  Anyone know what gives?

Weren’t they developed from the Jet Commander?
Might not be very fast with that wing so not much of an advantage over a turboprop...

I'm guessing my uncle's old Westwind is long gone from YQT?  I remember
him telling me that they got hit by lightning one flight, which was like having
a stick of dynamite go off under the seat.

Whats the mission ?

[quote author=ScudRunner link=topic=9503.msg26946#msg26946 date=1551478100]
Whats the mission ?
[/quote]
It started with a discussion about medevac and organ transfers and while a jet would be awesome for organs it would suck for medevac.  What stood out to me were the low time airframes and how cheap they were compared to other equipment.  I figured there had to be a reason.

Isn't that why old Learjets are used for medevac?  They're practically giving them away.

I think it was Bobby Younkin bought a Lear 23 for peanuts, and added it to his airshow:



He probably didn't fly it as well as a TC Inspector, but it looks like he had fun anyways.

PS  I think he was reading a checklist while he was doing the gear-down roll immediately
after takeoff.  Get Arlo or Rotten Ronnie to show you that maneuver.

[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=9503.msg26951#msg26951 date=1551497219]
Isn't that why old Learjets are used for medevac?
[/quote]
Seems like jets are usually used for medical repatriation flights, crossing time zones, and all that.  A quick run through the numbers shows that they wouldn’t be great at getting in and out of the three thousand and some odd feet of gravel at Moose Balls Falls as we do.

Those early Lears look like fun, but I imagine they’d most have to be since there’s a little fighter DNA in them.  Believe it or not there’s two of them in a junk yard not far from where I’m typing this.  Not wrecked or anything, the story goes the yard owner bought them intending to fly one and use the other for parts but he felt there were just too many hurdles to it.  Both arrived on flatbed trucks but one was reassembled and is said to have been ground run in place.  Google it at (48.3684418, -89.4972870).

[quote]they wouldn’t be great at getting in and out of the three thousand[/quote]

Get a TC Inspector to show you how to get a Learjet in and out of a 2,000 foot strip.

You're obviously a pussy, like me.

Fun fact: a lunatic dentist near Merrickville, Ontario used to operate a Learjet off
a (very long) grass strip.  What a guy.  Not much of a stick compared to a TC Inspector,
but he did ok IMHO.  Bit of a local legend.  Sometimes, he would get it stuck.  I
have photos, somewhere.  Probably a pussy, too.

[quote]not far from where I’m typing this[/quote]

Small world.  If you go west out the highway past Kakabeka and turn left
on 590 (?) after the bridge and go up the hill, you can wave at my mom
and my grandfather in the graveyard on the right, then if you turn left a
little further on, on the gravel road, you can meet my cousin where he
lives on the old family farm that my grandfather and grandmother lived
on, where their kids grew up, after World War One.  He had a lumber
mill on the creek.  Fun guy.

Fun fact about O'Connor township:  in WWI, 32 young men from there
went to war, and 30 died.  Only two came back.  One was my grandfather.
Funny story about how that happened.  I guess they were BAD PEOPLE
compared to a virtue-signalling twat from Quebec, who's father was a
card-carrying communist during WWII.

I have driven the highway from Kakabeka to Thunder Bay, more times than
you can possibly imagine.  I used to work at the pulp and paper mill, when
I was a kid, 1980-ish. 

[img width=500 height=218][/img]

I can close my eyes and hear "Flash And The Pan" on the cassette tape:



I probably drove like a pussy, but it sounded great and I had more fun
than you can possibly imagine.  1980 was dark days.  Only BAD PEOPLE
drove cars that looked and sounded like that.  I had a lot of fun, opening
up the four barrel going up the hill after the left turn after the Kakabeka bridge -
I am told you could hear it for miles, on a calm day.

PS  Love the grass strip at Murillo.  Used to tie the Maule down there, when
I flew there to visit in the summer.  Always liked the Oliver highway.  Ever
been to the fair?

PPS be careful swimming in the creeks and rivers there.  Lots of leeches.
Good training for southern and eastern Ontario, I suppose.

I googled the co-ordinates. 10/10!

There is a picture of most of a Lear jet. And, the place is called Jelly Ontario. Spectacular!

The second one is hiding in a building or gone though.

Very small world... I have relatives there as well, I want to say the second left off 590 after the top of the hill.