Always had an interest in TriStars and was surprised to see this TriStar at Sydney in November 2004. It had no titles – white overall with red blue cheat lines along the windows which I later learnt was its old basic Tradewinds colours.
Various bits if research on the web has revealed its colourful history.
It’s a -200 series originally delivered to Gulf Air on 18 December 1980 as N92TA; and in service with Gulf Air between 1980 and 1990 when finally reregistered as A40-TA on 19 June 1990.
Then followed a varied career shuttling between storage in Cambridge UK and being bought by Tradewinds in the States with subleases to Guyana, Air Holland, Airtours and Tunis Air. In summer 2004 it was bought by Universal Air Trading, ferried to Dakar and re-registered as 3D-AAB. Then bought by West Air then in November 2004 bought by AeroLift. It then flew Johannesburg – Calcutta - Philippines in ex-Tradewinds colours with no titles and was re-registered as 9Q-CVN on 18 November 2004 had an in-flight engine shutdown prompting a landing at Cairns when with no titles it was named "Natali".
It was ferried to Sydney for further work on 20 November 2004 and left I believe by Christmas that year. It was later seen in Karachi, Pakistan on 31 December 2004, in Sofia, Bulgaria on 14 January 2005 and was bought on 18 April 2005 by Vadim Lahktin, leased to Almiron Aviation in Uganda and re-registered as 5X-AAL. Almiron was a new cargo operator in the region and planned to operate specialized charter flights between Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Their first revenue cargo service was operated at the beginning of April 2005 between Dubai and Lagos. It was seen in service in Johannesburg on 11 May 2005 still with no titles and in basic Tradewinds colours. The Internet is full of stories about a dubious awarding of its airworthiness certification in Uganda.
On 13 July 2005 at 1545hrs it skidded off runway on landing in a heavy downpour in Lagos, Nigeria which closed the airport for 2 days although there were no injuries. Various reports state it was flying illegally, that it had been seized by the Lagos authorities but the owner reporting it was only a rumour, it was a minor incident, the aircraft was released and in service again by 13 August 2005. Other reports saying that early in 2005, Almiron Aviation [South Africa] had entered into a cooperation agreement of L-1011-200 5X-AAL (msn 1201) with its owners (one Vadim Lahktin).
However, since the aircraft's subsequent registration in Uganda, it was beset with technical problems and its stated that the owner did not posses the Supplementary Type Certificate he required to perform the conversion from a passenger aircraft to a so-called "bulk-load" freighter. Not being able to comply with the Aviation Authorities of Uganda anymore, the aircraft's owner planned to re-register the aircraft in Kyrgizstan. On 2 October 2005 it was reported as seen parked at Ras al Khaimah in United Arab Emirates.
I believe this is also the final resting place of ex British Airways -1 series TriStars G-BBAF & G-BBAH - aircraft that we also used as freighters in their final years although always using the passenger doors which must have limited the freight carriage somewhat.
Last report I can find states it as being returned ex lease to Vadim Lahktin and stored at Ras al Khaimah.
All the above apart from my own sighting is sourced from the web - which as we all know is not renowned for its accuracy.