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I don't think any of us in Nordair maintenance realized how fortunate we were to have four or five all-expense-paid 28-day vacations at that highly sought after, all-inclusive vacation destination Hall Beach. Beautiful Arctic gravel prairie, frigid Foxe Basin, not a tree for a thousand miles, and lets not forget the resort itself. Those magnificent battleship grey buildings, all painted institutional green inside. Now throw in a couple of Fairchild FH 227 aircraft operated by the tour operator. Who could want for anything more! Suffice to say we found ways to amuse ourselves. |
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The November 1992 issue of 'Horizons' included the picture below with the following caption: Happy trails. There's no golf green in the future for this retiree. November 21, 1992 marks the last day of flying for Air Canada's B-727 fleet, which has been sold to Federal Express. It was 18 years last August that the airline's first B-727-200 rolled off the assembly line. The aircraft started out as the one-class, 144-seat backbone of Rapidair. |
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Steve Bradley, B-727 Captain, Toronto, was the captain of the last revenue flight and sent in the following letter published in the January 1993 issue of 'Horizons'. A better send off. It was a great picture of the '27' in the November issue but I think an aircraft as good as the B-727 deserves a better good-bye. The B-727 came to Air Canada in 1974. At its peak, the AC B-727 fleet totalled 39 aircraft. The B-727's ruggedness and superb reliability earned it the nickname "Maytag" from maintenance and pilots. As well as Maytag, the B-727 was also known as the 'three-holer', the '27' and, less complimentary, the "truck" or the "water wagon". Our 27's were officially retired October 25, 1992. Almost as if the 27's knew it was too soon to go, the remaining few were kept quite busy after the official retirement, filling in for their high-tech successor. The end finally came however with the last B-727 revenue flight November 26, 1992. I had the honour of being the captain on her last two revenue flights, and indeed, she went out in style. The agents in both Montreal and Toronto advised boarding passengers about the fact and, on both flights 435 and 424, an appropriate announcement was made when airborne. Any thought that our Rapidair business people could care less about these noteworthy flights soon dispelled, as with each landing a round of applause was heard. On deplaning, normally hurried business people paused to shake hands, pat the bulkhead, and have me autograph and put the flight and aircraft number on their souvenir B-727 seat pocket safety card. On November 28, aircraft fin #418 was ferried to Winnipeg to await the beginning of its new career, flying packages with Federal Express. Aircraft fin #418 and the rest of the 727 fleet served us well, and appropriately, her last flight arrived five minutes early. The comments written in fin #418's logbook sum it up: "So long 27's, safe flying with Fed-Ex. We'll miss ya!" Steve Bradley, B-727 Captain, Toronto. Horizons Editor's Note: The crew on flights AC435 and AC424 included: Steve Bradley, Tim McCullagh, Dahl Manthorpe, Nicole Miles, Danielle Martel, André Deslauriers, Jean-Claude Doumit, Francine Picotte, Danielle Riendeau, Francine Poitras, Louise Lamerre, Jeanne Layzell, Loraine Nantel and Mary Wayland. |
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Editor's Note by Ken Pickford: Found this interesting YouTube video of the same aircraft (N265FE) on its final flight in 2013 after 20 years with FedEx. Donated to a museum and training facility at Lakeland, Florida, about 45 km east of Tampa. The video includes two low-level flypasts before its final landing, then speeches etc. Click the image below to view the video posted by J. Martin. |
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