Jeff Thomsen

Hi Paul, I started flying for NWA in 1982 and got to log quite a bit of time in all three cockpit seats of 272US in the ensuing years, so those photos of yours really brought back some fond memories. Thanks for that! Your models are simply amazing. You've really captured the "look", and you have an eye for detail. I've built both the Airfix -100 and MPC -200 and struggled with them, so I appreciate all the work you put in to make them more accurate. Outstanding, sir! And I have to ask....where in the world did you get such realistic runway bases?

That is just beautiful. I've got that kit but never started it because of the windshield issue. You've really worked wonders there. And that paint scheme is stunning. Perfection! I used to put fuel in Golden West T-Otters at Santa Barbara airport in the 70s and you've inspired me to build mine. Thank you for your post! -Jeff

Fantastic work!

Hi Graham. I'm not sure some of the environmental control issues we had were Handley Page's fault. The airplanes were getting long in the tooth at that time and our maintenance department may not have had the budget they needed. I believe Apollo's planes were built by Scottish Aviation (under license?). Someone here may know more. I also seem to remember we had Jetstreams with their Astazou 14s being converted to 16s. But my memory is a bit fuzzy on that.

Just stumbled on this thread.... I was fortunate enough to crew on some of Apollo Airways' Jetstreams in the early 1980s, and having fond memories of them, these photos were really a blessing to see! There don't seem to be that many quality photos of Jetstream airliners out there in Google-land. What Graham says about the max weight being a detractor is correct. Apollo ran service throughout California for several years but maintenance costs and the gross weight limitation under FAR135 rules kept them from being very profitable. The Astazou engines were problematic in that they had low times-between-overhaul, and seemed to be the limiting factor in the airplane's reliability. From a passenger's point of view the airplanes had balky air conditioning/pressurization, an annoying wing spar in the aisle that caused quite a few to stumble, and the cabin was VERY noisy. I have to attribute some of my hearing loss to the 3,000 hours I logged in it, in spite of foam earplugs covered by David Clarke headsets. But the Jetstream was fun to fly and had great performance. I built an Airfix kit back in the 80s and made my Astazou forward engine nacelles and gearbox areas from plastic tube, which was thick enough that I was able to chuck it in an electric drill and shape the intake lip against a hobby knife edge. The nacelles were faired into the Airfix kit without too much fuss, while the little bumps and strakes on the nacelles were made from scrap plastic. I'd like to build another kit as N5VH pictured above in Rob's post. This green and gold trimmed Jetstream was used in the opening scenes of "Moonraker" (where 007 is thrown out of the airplane) and later repainted in the standard blue and red scheme with different registration. I'll probably use the Airfix kit again since I like the fuselage shapes slightly better than the Amodel, and am in the process of designing an Apollo Airways decal for Greg Drawbaugh (drawdecal.com) for his decal e-store. Thanks to all who posted photos and info I hadn't seen before. I haven't yet figured out how to post my Flickr photos but will try to do so in the future.

Thanks, Graham. That is appreciated. I'll give it a try. -Jeff

Thank you, Graham, but I may just have to choose another scheme. I suppose I could pretend I know what I'm doing and just fair the thing over, but it's best to go with what's more familiar I guess.

I've got a WNW "early" Snipe and it's a beautiful kit, but one of the options is of a postwar trainer in silver finish and red striped cowl and I'm smitten. The instructions say the airplane probably lacked guns (not too surprising) but no help is given for what the forward decking behind the cowl looked like. Were the gun cut-outs still there or were things faired over? What about inside the cockpit? Anybody know? Thanks for any help you can provide!