Wanted information

If you can answer one of the following questions, or if you have a question yourself
please do not hesitate to send an E-mail to peter@cl44.com
or give me a call at the following number +31 6 2121 3856.

All feedback will be posted on this page.


9Q-CWS of SGA taxieing under its own power at Luton.
Q: This is a real strange scene !!! Luton 1978: Canadair CL-44-6 Yukon, 9Q-CWS in taxieing with an OPEN freight door. Why, Can this be, Any Clues ? Were you involved?
A: Argentinian Captain H. BIONDINI replied: I'm AEROLINEAS ARGENTINAS retired captain, and I flew CL-44 and Yucon in  TAR-TRANSPORTE AEREO RIOPLATENSE  (argentine cargo company) during the early seventies.  I remember the terrible hot temperature inside de cabin during taxi, particulary, when you was loaded with cattle (cows, horses, sheeps, elefants and so no),. We used to operate in severals countries along the  caribean and african aerea, where there were not facilities to refrigerate the plane or watering the cattle. Probably the Yucon 9Q-CWS was loaded with wet cargo (animals) , and it needs to taxi with the open  cargo door, to avoid the extremely temperatures, then it was closed before take off. Catlle used to die in these circunstances. I remember we used to carry 850 sheeps in double floor configuration., we lost around 50 sheeps (average) per flight  due to he exesive temperature (50 degrees) in fligth, and even more during taxi. The plane was designed to carry up to aproximatelly 210 passangers, or dry cargo, and the air condition system couldn't mantain the needed  temperature if these numbers were exceeded. Sometimes we were hauling caws, across the Atlantic ocean ( Recife to Dakar route), and ( belive or not) we used to reduce the speed, start descend to a lower flight level, and open the  smaller foward passangers door,  to let the wind refrigerate the cabin !!!! . I hope this words, can help to clariflied the mistery of the open fright door.

9Q-CKQ at Southend after maintenance and before delivery to Kinshasha in 1983.
Q: What happened to the four Yukons that went to Kinshasa ?
A: In our inventory of spare parts we have a Super Charger (part nr. MK-175) which servicable label says it came from 9Q-CWK and the part was removed April 1st, 1983 so that will be a estimate scrapping date for this Yukon. How about her sister ships 9Q-CWS & 9Q-CWN ?

PK-BAZ in a very poor state in 1985 at Halim Airport.
Q: Are there any remains left of the PK-BAZ, c/n 23 which disappeared from the military site of Halim Airport, Jakarta, Indonesia?
A:

Two Icelandic CL-44 's resting between flight at Reykjavik.
Q: The Loftleidir CL-44's were delivered with a disabled swingtail system. Is this true? Since I have seen pictures of a Loftleidir 44 (TF-LLJ c/n 20) with open swingtail I doubt it.
A: Olafur Sigursson : The swing tail was deactivated on all CL44 while flying for Loftleidir also on TF-LLJ.
What they did was to remove the hydraulik equipment and lock the tail permanently. It was mainly done to save weight. There are plenty of pictures of LLJ in full Loftleidir Livery with open tail. The reason for this is that TF-LLJ was the first CL44 Loftleidir phased out. It was sent to Taiwan where it was changed PAX to cargo configuration. But it was not re-painted. After this conversion it flew under the new "SALOFT" i.e. Saléen - Loftleidir charters, which was the forerunner of Cargolux. It was finally painted in Cargolux colours in 1970 by Scottish Aviation.

HB-IEN at London Gatwick.
Q: Why was HB-IEN, c/n 25, stripped to bare metal during a short time in 1976?
A: We stripped HB-IEN of the old paint during a „C“-check at Cargolux and then had it painted in Transvalair’s new coulours during the following „C“-check in order to keep downtime of the aircraft to a minimum. HB-IEN was flying „naked“ from 4 June to 17 September 1976.
Thanks to Markus Seiler - Dir Transvalair

9U-BHI (25) whith flat LH tyres and dust-covered at Ouagadougou, Burkina Fasso.
Q: is it correct that registration 9U-BHI was carried both by s/n 24 & 25 ?
A: According to my info N103BB c/n 25 became EL-WLL in Oct.1997, delivered in full TLC livery, later impounded at Johannesburg - Starwelt TLC titles removed - became then TN-AFP (reg was carried, Red TLC c/s, no titles - then 9U-BHI, had cheatline changed to light grey. She was parked up in Ouagadougou and deregistered in preparation for operations in DRC, pending a new 9Q registration for that contract. then 9Q-CTS and operated by Enterprise World, with EWA titles but unfortunately it had to make a forced landing near Kananga after it took-off from Mbuji Mayi for a flight to Kinshasha, Congo DRC on 17Feb02.

And on c/n 24: It also carried the registration 9U-BHI, used to get the CL-44 out of Greensboro on a Del. flight through Bermuda, Lisbon to Middle East. Immediately after arrival in Sharjah this registration-number was removed.
Immediately after that S/N 24 was made airworthy and ferried from the USA, via Sharjah, to DRC to commence work the same contract.
The DRC authorities required a DRC registration for the aircraft's entry into their country, however a DRC registration was not acceptable for the FAA for the flight out of American airspace. As the operating company for both aircraft was Burundian, a Burundi registration was obtained for S/N 24 for the FERRY ONLY, so that the aircraft could be de-registered from Burundi and re-registered onto the DRC at an intermediate point on the ferry, which was Sharjah.
What appears to cause confussion is that the registration allocated by Burundi to S/N 25 was the same as that previously allocated to S/N 24. My understanding of the reason for this reallocation is due to the minimal number of possible registrations available to Burundi. Most countries have registrations available from AB-aaa to AB-zzz, that is three allocatable registration letters, or a possible 17,576 simultaneous registrations. However Burundi only has 2 allocatable letters 9U-Baa to 9U-Bzz, or a possible 676 simultaneous registrations. Burundi must therefore carefully manage it's registration allocations, and re-use registrations far more frequently than other countries. DRC also has the same problem, with its registrations only possible from 9Q-Caa to 9Q-Czz - I know of several occassions at Johannesburg where minor diplomatic incidents have been caused with a new aircraft arriving with a "recycled" DRC registration and the operating company having to prove that its registration is genuine.
Nothing sinister in the registrations, just the tangled bureaucracy that goes along with modern aviation.

That is why most people mix up c/n 24 with c/n 25!

Thanks to M. Snow for his correct details !

 



Do you have or do you know the where-abouts of any Canadair CL-44 Video or 8mm / 16mm film footage. If you do please drop me an E-mail or feel free to distribute my contact addresses quoted on top of this page to anyone who might be able to help. Thank you !

 


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