evansb,
A very nice picture of the only 748 I ever flew in. Here is a sadder picture of her, being parted out at Whitehorse in 2006:
pigboat,
CSE was not owned by Shell. She was part of Chevron Standard's air force in the 70s, hence the registration. The others were a Turbo Beaver (CSA) and two Series 100 Twin Otters (CSC and CSD istr).
I was working for Chevron in Calgary and flew in all of them. I flew in the jump-seat of CSE from Calgary to an ice-strip on the Mackenzie River northwest of Inuvik, via Edmonton, High Level and Norman Wells.
The flight was to deliver equipment to an exploration well and I saw first-hand one of the short comings of the 748 as a freighter. The port-side freight door was positioned such that it would have been very easy for a fork-lift driver to back into the propellor. Hence the loadmaster kept an eagle eye on the proceedings.
On the way home, after dark, I saw the northern lights to the south of us. That was unexpected.
Last March, I was in Chiang Mai in Thailand, where besides doing the usual tourist stuff, I had flown a DA-20. Waiting at the airport to fly back to Bangkok, I was very surprised to see a 748 doing circuits. It turned out to be a RTAF aircraft. Are there any others still flying, besides this one and Air North's fleet of five?