Northwest Airline's last Boeing 727 passenger flight.

[Guest]

Hey guys, I thought you might be interested in this. Today, Northwest Airlines flew our last revenue passenger flight for the beloved Boeing 727. Flight 560 departed Denver at 0630, and arrrived to much fanfare in MSP at 0927. A "going away" party was held at the gate and another one is planned for Wednesday evening at a local hotel here in the Twin Cities. for more info: http://www.nwa727.com It is a wonderful machine, I've personally logged time in each seat in the cockpit, and can think of very few bad things to say about the aircraft itself. I would hazard a guess, that each and everyone of us have ridden on one of these incredible machines sometime in our lives.....kind of a sad day, actually.here's a shot I took several years ago when I was crewing on the 727.http://images.andale.com/f2/109/127/632235...639_NWA_727.jpgWe are waiting at the "number one hold short" position for runway 30R in KMSP. One of the coolest things about the "three holer", is that it always looks like it's doing mach 2 just sitting still. Very beautiful lines... I'll miss her...... BBall --------------------------- Capt. William "BBall" BallBoeing 757, Northwest AirlinesSenior Editorwww.frugalsworld.com

[Guest DNelson]

That is a sad event. The first commercial aircraft I flew on was a Northwest 727 from Billings to Bozeman Montana. I was around 10 years old. We landed in a snowstorm. At the time I knew nothing about ILS, procedure turns, etc., but I remember being impressed that we could land safely in such lousy weather. I've been an airplane nut as long as I can remember, and I'm sure that flight was a factor in my going on to get my private ticket.Dan

[Guest jrewing]

As fate would have it, a NW 727 was parked in front of the KaiserAir terminal on the North Field at KOAK for a couple of days over the past weekend. I walked past it on several occasions, since it was within a short distance of the Chevron 100LL pumps. I had assumed it was a charter flight, given where it was parked.How many 727 does NW have? Are they getting rid of all of them or will they keep some for charter operations?JohnKOAK

[Guest The Ancient Brit]

BBal,I know the 727

[Guest]

Hey guys,"aerial shark".....I never thought of that, but that's exactly what they look like. Good one AB. I'll never forget, I was in KDFW the day after Braniff parked all their jets (March of '82 I believe). I was flying for a commuter airline, and we were there for an hour or so. Braniff called their fleet "Flying Colors" and they were painted every color of the rainbow (some by the famous artist Calder himself). We looked out on the ramp to about 100 parked very colorful 727s, and the F/O turned to me and said, "they look like a bunch of jellybeans." I remember laughing on a day that was otherwise rather sad.John,I think the bird you saw at KOAK was flying an NBA charter. The airplane is very popular with the NBA teams (I think mainly because we're able to reconfigure the cabin to make it VERY luxurious). I believe the plan is to keep a few around to do that type of flying and probably sell off the remaining jets. The airplane, after all these years, still does the job it was intended to do VERY, VERY well. It just costs too much to operate...not maintenance wise...but the "3 engines, 3 pilots" kind of a thing.take care all,BBall------------------Capt. William "BBall" BallBoeing 757, Northwest AirlinesSenior Editorwww.Frugalsworld.com

[Guest]

That was a very sad day. I have a couple friends of mine that used to ride right seat on the 727. Growing up near Minneapolis, I had the opportunity to goto MSP on a regular basis. I always loved seeing the good ol' three holer making its approach to the runways, it is such a graceful bird. On one other note, I have seen a NW 727 at PHX in the last few weeks, obviously on charter ops for somebody. Attached is a photo I took at MSP last May.

[Guest]

...and I didn't see you there BBall. The psuedo history museum at the credit ubnion was nice.Gotta admit I miss the 3-holer, though the runs across the northern tier was not fun in Jan/Feb. And how mant airlines have a famous folk-singer do a song about a flight? ("Northwest 222"- Harry Chapin, ok, didn't say it was a GREAT song, but it is a song).Can't wait for the DC-9 Party!Tim_757

[Guest P3_Super_Bee]

A sad day. The B727 IS my favorite civilian aircraft. Love to 'em fly. Don't get to see 'em very much out here in Hawaii :(. Though there is one Super27 that comes into PHNL every once in awhile. Still trying to figure out who she belongs to. I think she's a private, no name/titles on her. And when ever I see her sitting on the ramp its in a postion to where can't see the reg number.:-outtaJeff "Ace" Frey

[Guest]

"You Can't beat an original" BBall757, I live in N.Dallas and remember taking my Aunt to Greater Southwest to catch her flight which was an American Airlines 727, the one with the Lightning bolt across the Fuselage. And of Branniff's many colors. :-( 707_Astrojet P.S as you can tell by my screen name I love the old colors, Not just American but all of them.