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70 Mustang
14th Feb 2024, 10:41
Just started watching series 2 of Kin, (Sky labels it as series 2 but “Fifth Season” is shown when the episode starts. Not sure if that might be a company name, or actually the fifth series) and within a few minutes, they are at an airport and in the back ground, there is what looks to be a Volpar with a very similar paint scene as the one I flew in Anchorage in the late ‘80s with Troy Air. It is an N reg and difficult to catch the reg number but it appears start with a 7. The Volpar is/was a Beech 18 converted to turboprops and changed from a taildragger to a nose gear.

i could not catch any focused shots from the TV but will try to attach a photo of the one I used to fly.

would be most interesting to learn if anyone could give more information.

No one I’ve spoken to, has ever known what a Volpar is.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x526/img_0028_1697ca0f81300ada95b54eaac16d56dbd66b876e.jpeg

Quemerford
14th Feb 2024, 11:10
I'd have said that was a Volpar Turboliner but I think a few companies did similar conversions.

treadigraph
14th Feb 2024, 11:23
Yup, Volpar Turboliner. Apparently the protype conversion. It was with Troy Air between 1981 and at least 1984 - went to Connie Kalitta in 1990.

Edit: I needed to have read the original query more carefully! :p

SWBKCB
14th Feb 2024, 11:47
According to Google, Kin is an Irish television crime series, so could be this one? Currently based at Weston, near Dublin I believe. Was previously at Breighton in Yorkshire

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131511869@N06/49708547891/

70 Mustang
14th Feb 2024, 13:45
According to Google, Kin is an Irish television crime series, so could be this one? Currently based at Weston, near Dublin I believe. Was previously at Breighton in Yorkshire

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131511869@N06/49708547891/

the one on TV does look like an N7…and has the flag on the vertical stab.

would be interesting to know what it’s doing now.

most flights we used it on out of ANC, we spent almost as much time loading and unloading it as we did flying it.

70 Mustang
14th Feb 2024, 15:15
The logbook shows it designated as a BE8T.

with Troy Air, I flew N401TH, N400WA, N407TH, N800TH, last flight was Feb 11, 1989. I was there when they were shut down.

I remember that winter being the coldest in which I had worked in. Painful fueling aircraft over wing. ANC showed -30 in Jan and the interior showed -51F. Had to carry heating oil out to several villages.

I ended up going across the airport to join MarkAir on the L100 of which they had 3 at the time I joined, later the B737-100, 200, 200ADV with cargo kits, then the classic 300 and 400.

this s..t makes me feel pre-historic.

Quemerford
14th Feb 2024, 17:24
MarkAir! I'd forgotten them. We had one of their L.100s at Lyneham while I was there.

Jhieminga
14th Feb 2024, 19:03
The logbook shows it designated as a BE8T.
I think that's the ICAO code that fits the boxes on a flight plan form. It can cover several models of a specific type. N700TN is listed as a Beech H-18 in the FAA database. Officially it's the last production version, 149 built with 109 of these having a Volpar-designed tricycle undercarriage.

In contrast, N407TH is, or was, registered as a Beech C-45H, which was no doubt Volpar-modified to the tricycle undercarriage and turboprops.

DaveReidUK
14th Feb 2024, 20:46
I think that's the ICAO code that fits the boxes on a flight plan form.

Turbine Beech 18 conversions are B18T in ICAO-speak (the original piston Beech 18/C-45/SNB/etc is a BE18).

Jhieminga
15th Feb 2024, 08:11
Found them... both of these ICAO type designations cover a multitude of sins....eeehhh... I mean subtypes. ;)

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/951x464/be18_eee97fa88134c5c44d7f049ceff8aaa5cc561914.png
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1006x217/b18t_3c24470e3056affbf43a7a68328152d4d360650d.png

megan
16th Feb 2024, 01:33
'71 used to see the odd Volpar in Vietnam, I've long learnt that one shouldn't rely on memory but seem to recall Air America and polished natural metal.

Air America Beech individual history here,

https://www.utdallas.edu/library/specialcollections/hac/cataam/Leeker/aircraft/vtb.pdf