"Dusty Ventures" (dustyventures)
05/08/2019 at 13:32 • Filed to: None
6
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"Dusty Ventures" (dustyventures)
05/08/2019 at 13:32 • Filed to: None | 6
| 43 |
I’ve mentioned before that the airport by my workplace (KCEF) doesn’t often see civilian aircraft larger than a Gulfstream. Every now and then there’s a big charter flight that rolls in, or a few birds parked when the UN is in session, but that’s it. Which makes this 787 particularly stand out.
The plane arrived at the end of March, parked by the GA terminal, and then... just sat there. After a couple weeks they turned it around 180 degrees so it faced the opposite direction, but aside from that it hasn’t moved. Some days the cabin door is open and the mobile stairs are at the plane, sometimes there’s no sign of activity around it. Finally yesterday my curiosity won out and I checked the tail number. I’m not sure what I expected, but I definitely didn’t expect the first result to be an incident report from March 8, 2018.
Per Aviation Safety Net:
“ A Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner suffered a nose gear collapse at Moses Lake-Grant County Airport, Washington, USA. The aircraft was parked outside a hangar while undergoing conversion into a VIP configuration.
“Ko rean Air was doing the conversion for an anonymous client, the airline stated to FlightGlobal.”
There’s a lot of interesting tidbits there. So after the incident and repair Korean Air (presumably) finished conversion, gave it its current nondescript paint, then for its first and only flight in a year flew it from Moses Lake to Westover? Y tho?
Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 13:36 |
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That’s close to a $300m plane, just sitting there doing nothing.
Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 13:36 |
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I expect a full investigation and write up b y ttyytttmmm
CaptDale - is secretly British
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 13:38 |
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Huh, very interesting
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CaptDale - is secretly British
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 13:43 |
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That is $74k an hour to o pera te... holy fuck
facw
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 13:43 |
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My favorite Westover AFB related thing is the sort of adjacent nuclear bunker under the Bare Mountain (“The Notch”), which is today used as a library annex for area colleges: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Attack_Command_and_Control_System_Facility,_Hadley
For Sweden
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 13:46 |
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I assume ramp space at Westover is cheap.
The paint reminds me of the Saudi private 777, VP-CAL. I bet this is going to the Saudis as well.
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Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
> CaptDale - is secretly British
05/08/2019 at 13:49 |
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And if it sits getting no hours, that’s a maintenance problem waiting to happen.
Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> For Sweden
05/08/2019 at 13:54 |
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Or Li’l Fat Kim.
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For Sweden
> Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/08/2019 at 13:56 |
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He can't afford a Dreamliner
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CaptDale - is secretly British
> Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
05/08/2019 at 13:58 |
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That too
SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
> CaptDale - is secretly British
05/08/2019 at 14:02 |
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Offshore money gonna offshore money.
Look at it this way, though. If your net worth is 5 Bil, it will cost you 0.019% of your total net worth to fly 13 hours. This is equivalent to someone with a net worth of 100K (I assume middle aged blue collar families who own a house in the Midwest) spending $1924. That would still be a little pricey, but if you could take your family of 5, it would only be the equivalent of $400 per ticket.
The money gap between the top of the top and “normal” people is truly insane when you make a few comparisons
ranwhenparked
> For Sweden
05/08/2019 at 14:17 |
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For when you want your luxurious private jet to look like it came from a discount airline in the 1990s.
user314
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 14:43 |
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Hmmm, the FAA database says the owner is Bank of Utah Trustee , while Planespotters has it operating for the Korean Govt.
Spanfeller is a twat
> For Sweden
05/08/2019 at 14:49 |
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Calderon could afford it...
I mean, he indebted the nation for 30 years...I bet that if Kim indebts NK for 60 years, he’d afford a MAX7?
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Dusty Ventures
> For Sweden
05/08/2019 at 15:05 |
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Poking around the internet I found someone on airliners.net claiming it is (or at least was) going to the South Korean government to replace 10001. Can’t help but wonder if those plans have changed based on the styling of the new livery though.
Steve in Manhattan
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 15:14 |
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and who makes that landing gear?
BigBlock440
> CaptDale - is secretly British
05/08/2019 at 15:16 |
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It’s a big plane. At 335 seats, you’re making money at $221/hr per seat.
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CaptDale - is secretly British
> BigBlock440
05/08/2019 at 15:18 |
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Yeah but as a private plane though....
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user314
> Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/08/2019 at 15:21 |
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Lil’ Kim doesn’t fly. He has a specially armored train for when he does leave NorK.
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Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> For Sweden
05/08/2019 at 15:33 |
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Wet lease, I was thinking.
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Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> user314
05/08/2019 at 15:37 |
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That’s also because he doesn’t have a dependable aeroplane, I’ve read.
ttyymmnn
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 15:44 |
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Waiting for a check to clear?
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ttyymmnn
> Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero
05/08/2019 at 15:45 |
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Thanks, bit I doubt I can find any more information than Dusty did. I’ll give it a shot, though.
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user314
> Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/08/2019 at 15:56 |
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Oh , I had them confused, i t was dead old dad that was afraid of flying . Lil’ Kim’s just hampered by North Korea’s collection of old Soviet shitboxes and newer Russian shitboxes.
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ttyymmnn
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 16:15 |
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Seattle Times has a little bit more info, at least on the history of the a/c.
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Dusty Ventures
> Steve in Manhattan
05/08/2019 at 16:50 |
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Apparently it was user error. The crew members working on the plane forgot to install the locking pin
Mercedes Streeter
> CaptDale - is secretly British
05/08/2019 at 17:01 |
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Can’t cost $74k an hour if you never fly it. xD
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CaptDale - is secretly British
> Mercedes Streeter
05/08/2019 at 17:10 |
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Wrong .... so so so wrong.
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user314
> ttyymmnn
05/08/2019 at 17:17 |
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Buyer’s waiting for the Car Planefax to come in.
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user314
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 17:19 |
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And that’s no t even the most expensive occurrence of missing pins/bolts :
f86sabre
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 17:41 |
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They could be working on the installation and certification of supplemental type certification hardware associated with the VIP interior. Just a guess.
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Dusty Ventures
> f86sabre
05/08/2019 at 19:01 |
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Westover really isn’t the kind of place for that though. There’s the military base, which houses the Airlift Wing, then there’s a number of decommissioned base hangars from the B-52 days that are now a combination of abandoned and privately owned (for a myriad of storage purposes from what I’ve seen), then at the very end of the long runway (11,600 feet) is the single story, 120'x150' passenger terminal/municipal operations/charter flights building. The plane is parked by this building. The are no other aviation related structures or business in the area, and certainly none I can think of that would be tasked with VIP aircraft modification.
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Dusty Ventures
> ttyymmnn
05/08/2019 at 19:21 |
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Interesting, do you know anything about those issues with early Dreamliners? I hadn’t heard about them, and it's weird to think there could be an issue that would make a plane unsuitable for commercial use but still flightworthy and suitable for VIP use.
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f86sabre
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 20:18 |
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It’s being held in reserve for when Trump needs to make his escape to Russia then. APU running any time he gets on Twitter.
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ttyymmnn
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 20:51 |
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I’m not entirely sure. They had some early teething problems with some of the systems, and the early aircraft came in overweight. The design certainly matured over the production process. I would imagine they built a few that were airworthy but not up to the quality or specs that the airlines ordered. But that’s all a bit of conjecture on my part.
Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
> Dusty Ventures
05/08/2019 at 21:33 |
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https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1372741
Also look up 787 terrible teens.
They’re b asically overweight and had a lot of custom parts to make them properly airworthy, as well as some wing modifications due to some parts being too strong and redirecting loads in unexpected places. VIP jets don’t carry much in the way of passengers and cargo and therefore the weight issue really isn’t a big deal like it would be for an airline that expects all aircraft in a fleet to perform nearly identically and carry as much payload as possible. The biggest thing VIP jets need to haul is the passenger’s egos, and those don’t weigh too much.
MofK
> Dusty Ventures
05/09/2019 at 01:48 |
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Planespotters.net shows it’s being refitted as VIP aircraft for South Korean Government
pip bip - choose Corrour
> Dusty Ventures
05/09/2019 at 04:24 |
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claim it for Oppo
JustAnotherG6
> Dusty Ventures
05/09/2019 at 12:14 |
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Is the airport part of the former military base there?
If so, I believe Genie (maker of telehandlers, manlifts and such) has a manufacturing facility there. We had a few buildings leased to store parts and kit
for them.
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Dusty Ventures
> JustAnotherG6
05/09/2019 at 15:25 |
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The base is still active, not former. And if Genie is here they're operating the facility under another name.
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Steve in Manhattan
> Dusty Ventures
05/10/2019 at 14:15 |
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I would think it would lock without human intervention, but then I know nothing about aircraft engineering.
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Dusty Ventures
> Steve in Manhattan
05/11/2019 at 00:53 |
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From what I’ve read in the forums
there’s a locking pin you need to put in if the aircraft is going to sit long term without moving the relieve stress on the hydraulic fluid
in the gear.
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Steve in Manhattan
> Dusty Ventures
05/11/2019 at 18:19 |
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That’s why you always set the handbrake.