Отслеживание полетов в реальном времени

Hey if anyone misses the old -200 too much, you can always come up to Edmonton, Alberta (CYEG), where airlines like Canadian North and First Air keep these planes just as busy as ever! (and will continue to do so for quite a while.. they are practically irreplaceable because of their rugged versatility and ability to get in and out of gravel strips in the far north with gravel kits and built-in airstairs.)

As an ex A&P for UAL, I used to work on the 737-200's, 500's and 300's.I will certainly miss that airplane.Great airplane!

I will miss the Guppie. Love beating it down the ILS in my Mooney.

Pilot Decided Long Ago to Retire With B737s; Will Fly Fleet's Final
Three Flights for United



Chicago-based Captain Bob Russo loves piloting the "guppy" so much
that he decided long ago that if United ever retired the B737, that
would also be his cue to exit.

Bob, who has logged more than 17,000 hours in B737 cockpits, has been
a United pilot since June 1978 and except for a few years in the B727,
has flown the B737 on milk-run hops ever since. He will be the captain
on October 28 for three legs of Flight 737, our last revenue trips for
the fleet.

The flight starts at Washington Dulles at 0600 that morning, with
Dulles Regional Chief Pilot Walt Clark at the controls. It then flies
to Chicago-O'Hare, where Bob will take over.

He will fly, with First Officer Paul Fletcher, to Denver, then Los
Angeles, and finally to San Francisco, where he will be greeted by a
water cannon salute when the plane taxis to the gate at about 1800.

"We have more modern, advanced planes in our fleet now," Bob says.
"But the fact is, the 737 is the most fun to fly, and the most
hands-on.

"I know that's unusual at an airline like United," Bob says. "Most
pilots want to fly the bigger equipment and handle the glamorous
routes. But I know I wouldn't look forward to coming to work if I had
to fly 14 hours nonstop. I like flying out to the smaller airports,
picking up people and taking them back to O'Hare, the busiest airport
in the world."

Bob grew up near Chicago's Midway Airport when it, not O'Hare, was
considered the busiest airport in the world. He still lives on the
same block.

"Commercial airliners were always flying over my head, and from as
early as I can remember, I wanted to be a commercial airline pilot --
a specific type of commercial airline pilot.

"When I was 12, I read an article in Flying magazine, called 'The Best
Job in the World.' It was written by a North Central Airlines captain
flying DC-3s out of O'Hare, and described his typical day. It was all
short-haul flying. That's exactly the kind of flying I wanted to do."

Bob took flying lessons at Midway starting at age 15, and soon earned
his commercial and instrument rating. He was a flight instructor and
charter pilot during and after college, "the best civilian way to
build flight hours." When United was hiring pilots in the late 1970s,
Bob was accepted and started flight training in Denver in 1978.

United attracted Bob in part because it offered "such a wide array of
routes. It satisfied a lot of what I wanted to do." It also enabled
Bob to stay in his hometown except for his first year, when he was
based in Cleveland.

Bob has landed B737s about 5,500 times; when he touches down in San
Francisco at dusk on October 28, he will be greeted by a rare water
cannon salute. He'll have his wife, Sherry, with him on the final
flight. After returning to Chicago, Bob plans on spending much of his
retirement time flying his Cessna 182, for pleasure and also as a
volunteer for Angel Flight, which provides free air transportation for
charitable and medical needs.

"I understand the hard decisions we need to make," Bob said about the
fleet retirement, "but it's really a shame that we're not going to
have the guppy anymore. I've always considered the B737, particularly
the 737-200, the ultimate flying machine."

The first UAL versions came with an engineer panel to keep the Union happy.

The first flight I ever took was in a guppy, KPIT-KDCA, in September 1971, first class, liveried United. I fell in love with that plane on that flight. Subsequently, working for Piedmont at KDCA, we had the glamorous 727's, but the 737's were the workhorses that we all knew and loved. USAir is also supposedly retiring their last guppy this year, so thank goodness for Southwest!