Long shot. ID a Caledonian Tristar.

[boguing]

As far as I can tell, Caledonian Airways (BA) had a fleet of 19 L1011s in 1994.

What do the assembled brains think are the odds that just one of them would have regularly flown UK to Athens in August of that year?

I have no idea how any airline (and they all have possibly different strategies) allocates aircraft to specific routes.

The reason that I'm asking is that, for very personal reasons, I'd like to do my best to identify the actual airframe that I flew on with my daughter that year.

Airliners.net only has G-BBAE at Athens and BBAF at Rhodes, in unspecified years.

[jetstream7]

This will help a little, but not a lot...

The number of Tristars operated in 1994 by Caledonian was less than 19 - I think they had the following in the fleet then.
G BBAE
G BBAF
G BBAH
G BBAI
G BBAJ
So not so many aircraft to chose from.

You don't say where you flew from, but perhaps one of the aviation societies may be able to help.

[boguing]

That gives me the encouragement to keep Googling!

Many thanks!

[TOWTEAMBASE]

Google G-CEAP, she is at STN, and I'm sure you will find her colourful history includes BCAL

[Blink182]

BCAL never operated the Tristar

Caledonian Airways ( 100 % owned by BA ) was the leisure / Charter arm of BA after the Takeover of BCAL. They operated the Tristar on routes out of LGW and Manchester. These aircraft were never reliable and had many AOGs .......... a lot of Engineers paid off their mortgages with the resulting overtime :ok:

[boguing]

Thanks to all.

I think that it was probably BBAE (long since scrapped); without a definite date that's about as certain as I can be.

Funnily enough Blink, I do vaguely remember that there was a 'tech' related delay.

[Need to Know Basis]

There was one of the BA Tristars ( Caledonian ) that went to be a freighter UK/ EU - LOS. You loaded it through the passenger door ( after the lower decks were full ). I am trying to remember the name ? From my darkest memory it was an early form of Avient but I could be wrong. No idea where this aircraft went......I think Ras Al Kamineh ? Of course I may be a little vague and not correct but it was along those lines.

Think of the manpower loading & offloading by having to carry a box one by one through the pax door......amazing !

[Flying Mechanic]

I knew a French guy, who flew the Tristar out of RAK in 2004 ish, his company had pax versions, plus freighters, which with no fright door took 3 days to load.

[TheChitterneFlyer]

I flew BBAE into Athens on the 1st of Aug 1994... and returned to LGW the same day.

[rog747]

i worked for kT and also with a Tour Op and we chartered a KT Tristar every Friday night from LGW to Athens at 21.55

Thomson holidays also chartered one from LGW as well which departed just before our ours did at 20.25
I think there was one same time from MAN too during the high peak -
someone else also chartered one on Sunday nights also and a Monday day flight both from LGW
I am sure the Monday was for a cruise ship.

Athens back then was very popular charter destination unlike now where its mostly BA A3 and EZY

KT Tristars also went to HER LCA CHQ CFU and RHO every week as well -
they did not go to the much smaller Greek Islands for obvious reasons although Preveza rings a bell
AFAIK none op'd to EFL or Zante
Paphos?

these KT a/c always went tech frequently on the Friday nights and delays of 12 hours were common and a nightmare for us and the BA handling staff - but they worked wonders and we got a lot of pax away on the many other Friday night ATH charters on other airlines AE DA OM BIA and also on the BA scheduled night flight at 2130

when Caledonian (which was called British Airtours until 1988) was sold by BA in 1995 to Inspirations holidays things got much worse.
in 1999 Wagon Lits then part of Thomas Cook bought KT then the name Caledonian disappeared being morphed into JMC

the Caledonian name is still i think owed by TCX

KT did not have 19 in the fleet ever - more like 7-9 over time

there was a tie-up with KT and Sabre that formed Peach Air that had 2 Tristars again a technical nightmare

[razorrawe]

As you may or may not know there are still 2 ex Caledonian Tristars that have not been scrapped yet
TT-DWE EX G-BBAF which is at the Emirates national motor museum also TT-DAE EX G-BBAH
which is in Manas Kyrgyzstan parked up in there corrosion corner
My last flight and only flight on a CKT Tristar was
October 1999 LGW-RHO think it was on G-BBAJ it was delayed 10hrs I can remember that.........:ugh:

[cheesebag]

I only ever flew a Tristar back in 1979. BA flight to Malta with BA. It was G-BBAH My Junior Jet Club passport said so! :ok:

[WHBM]

The KT Tristar fleet ended at the end of October 1999. Sunday 31 October was the end of the UK schools half-term holiday (and end of summer season) and the usual big rush to get everyone home. We were on an evening 737 from Faro to Gatwick, getting to Faro airport there was a KT Tristar which had been AOG there for hours, on what was probably its last ever commercial flight. Quite likely the handling engineers had got rid of all their spares, they were possibly waiting for parts to arrive from Gatwick.

Next morning in the office I discover The Boss and his whole family had been on it, stuck there all day and evening. THANK GOD we never stumbled across them in the departure lounge, with us leaving on time !!! :)

[rog747]

sounds like a normal KT fun day/night out - I was at LGW all night usually:bored:

[Noddys car]

Was based in Bahrain 1996 and we had the Caledonian L1011 that had Aer Lingus tail cos. think that was BBAE

[Milvus Milvus]

I was the Flight Engineer on G-BBAF , 29th Aug 1994. KT924/925 LGW-ATH-LGW . It was a long night !

[Wycombe]

The KT Tristar fleet ended at the end of October 1999

I was pax on one of those last flights ACE-LGW.

I think because of our weight out of ACE (and it was a warm, nil-wind evening), we had to depart on 21. It was evening rush-hour and we had to wait for lots of arrivals on 03 before we could depart. I remember a nostalgic atmosphere onboard and talking with the CC about that being one of the last flights.

Also flew on a Cally T* LTN-LCA on a Summer's evening in the early '90's. Over 400 pax on board IIRC. I suspect the performance calcs were done very carefully that evening ;-)

[Smudge's Lot]

Just to throw a curve ball, it was a flight from Mahon back to a rainy Luton in a Court Line Tristar that made me want to be an airline pilot at 7 years old. I am sure it was painted orange as the Court Line fleet had many garish colours! But because I made my wish come true, I still love the Tristar as one of the best planes ever made, never got to fly one though.
My dream came true, and I joined Britannia Airways in 1988 on the trusty 737-200, now a Captain on the 787!!
But still think of those " Halycon Days" or was it Halcyon Breeze.......

[arthur harbrow]

It would be interesting to hear the stories and reasons for the poor technical performance of these aircraft.

[Halcyon Days]

If it was yellow it was G-BAAA.Halcyon Days.
Now how would I know that.

Halcyon days forever!!

[BOAC73]

Apart from the bilge corrosion ( a nice little earner) I'm not all that aware the aeroplane gave us that many technical issues.
B73.

[Smudge's Lot]

Spent a long time looking around but sure it was orange,therefore G-BAAA,Halcyon Days!

[razorrawe]

Smudge's lot I may be sat behind you on the 12th of October ?:)