Mystery 747 at KIAH

[NGXfanatic 85]

I pride myself on being up to date on the art of aircraft spotting, but I must say I found one that has me stumped. It happened on my vacation last week, and upon landing at KIAH at runway 26L and taxing to United terminal C, I found this gem of a 747-400 at the international terminal, and I have no idea who the operator is. I checked the list of carriers on Wikipedia's page, none of them match.Any ideas?

[bic 43]

I can just barely make out the registration N2635Q. But when I search it comes back with a Piper Cherokee.I think I've seen that guy holding the globe up on or in the Continental magazine.

[Raindance 25]

Might be one of FS's fictitious AI planes jumped through a hole in reality.. :(

[Joe L 55]

N263SG - Atlas Air. That was fun trying to figure that out . . .

[audiohavoc 24]

Atlas Air, a cargo operator uses this 747 as a charter aircraft if I recall correctly. I use to be a member of a virtual Atlas Air group, and I remember when they added this aircraft to the fleet, which was within the last 3-4 years.

[Chuck_B 2]

Just as an informational question: As a cargo carrier, could you tell me what they charter for? Would this aircraft be used for passenger travel? Or just chartered for cargo, as needed by various other cargo carriers?

[Mean Aerodynamic Chord 269]

I was at KIAH past Saturday (March 10) for my spring break flight to Las Vegas (southern Utah=final destination) and I heard chatter at Terminal C that the president of the United States was at the airport a day before, thus canceling all flights and thus the airport being crowded (which it was!!!)

[NGXfanatic 85]

I was at KIAH past Saturday (March 10) for my spring break flight to Las Vegas (southern Utah=final destination) and I heard chatter at Terminal C that the president of the United States was at the airport a day before, thus canceling all flights and thus the airport being crowded (which it was!!!)

Diego, don't be creeped out, but I believe I remember you participating in a thread about United/Continental's equipment options in the PMDG NGX, and you talking about your upcoming flight with United and your offer to ask the pilots about their equipment settings. This topic was active a few weeks ago, and coincidentally, I was about a week or so from my own spring break trip from KPHL to Central America (San Pedro Sula in Honduras the final destination) on the same exact carrier, with a stop in KIAH for the connecting flight to Honduras, I was equally curious about United's settings. The picture above was on a United 737-900ER at KIAH, and I changed planes to a 737-800 for the flight from KIAH to Honduras, so I sure got my real life NG fix for this year! Were you able to get a peek at the cockpit? I wasn't, as I'm shy and I didn't want to bother the busy crew, but I did see the EFIS/MAP glass displays on all the flights.KIAH is an interesting airport, is that your "homebase"? It was neat seeing the departing traffic use different adjacent runways (the 15's and 26L/27) to optimize flow based on the direction of departing or arriving aircraft, it appears to be a very efficient setup. I landed on 26L, departed to Honduras on 15L. On the return trip to KIAH from Honduras, I landed in gusty conditions in the afternoon on March 3rd on runway 27, and departed for KPHL on runway 15L late at night. When we had landed, the winds were strong from the northwest, which resulted in departures using the 33's, which I hear is rare. After a 3 hour layover, and after sunset, the winds died down apparently and departures switched back to the usual 15's. Anyhow, returning to the topic, I did a little research on Wikipedia. I had heard of Atlas Air as a cargo carrier, and the tail logo looked like the exact same design except in gold, so after a little searching I found out it's a unique passenger charter operated by the Cargo carrier to serve the predominant oil services industry in Houston, in cooperation with an Angolian carrier called Sonair. It's called the "Houston Express"http://www.sonairsar...xpress_en.shtmlSo it appears Atlas Air is operating almost like the carrier they replace on the KIAH to Angola route, World Airways, in offering both cargo and passenger charter services, altough this livery on the 747-400 is a one off job just for this specific route. It was fun to track this livery down, it was like spotting a rare bird by surprise, which incidentally, was the purpose of my vacation in Honduras! One more little tidbit, I didn't find out till I got home, but my March 3rd flight on the Continental NGs was the same day United finalized their absorption of Continental in the merger, effectively ending Continental's operations like their website, flight numbers, and such. So It turned out I participated in Airline history.I'm looking forward to re-enacting my vacation flights with the PMDG NGX. I even went so far as to download from Avsim the flightplans and paints for the Atlas Air 747 flight at KIAH, I can't wait to see how close to reality I can get.

[NGXfanatic 85]

Well, here is the result of importing the Sonair flightplan and 747 paint for the AI into the sim, showed up at the gate as in RL:

[Mean Aerodynamic Chord 269]

Diego, don't be creeped out, but I believe I remember you participating in a thread about United/Continental's equipment options in the PMDG NGX, and you talking about your upcoming flight with United and your offer to ask the pilots about their equipment settings. This topic was active a few weeks ago, and coincidentally, I was about a week or so from my own spring break trip from KPHL to Central America (San Pedro Sula in Honduras the final destination) on the same exact carrier, with a stop in KIAH for the connecting flight to Honduras, I was equally curious about United's settings. The picture above was on a United 737-900ER at KIAH, and I changed planes to a 737-800 for the flight from KIAH to Honduras, so I sure got my real life NG fix for this year! Were you able to get a peek at the cockpit? I wasn't, as I'm shy and I didn't want to bother the busy crew, but I did see the EFIS/MAP glass displays on all the flights.KIAH is an interesting airport, is that your "homebase"? It was neat seeing the departing traffic use different adjacent runways (the 15's and 26L/27) to optimize flow based on the direction of departing or arriving aircraft, it appears to be a very efficient setup. I landed on 26L, departed to Honduras on 15L. On the return trip to KIAH from Honduras, I landed in gusty conditions in the afternoon on March 3rd on runway 27, and departed for KPHL on runway 15L late at night. When we had landed, the winds were strong from the northwest, which resulted in departures using the 33's, which I hear is rare. After a 3 hour layover, and after sunset, the winds died down apparently and departures switched back to the usual 15's. Anyhow, returning to the topic, I did a little research on Wikipedia. I had heard of Atlas Air as a cargo carrier, and the tail logo looked like the exact same design except in gold, so after a little searching I found out it's a unique passenger charter operated by the Cargo carrier to serve the predominant oil services industry in Houston, in cooperation with an Angolian carrier called Sonair. It's called the "Houston Express"http://www.sonairsar...xpress_en.shtmlSo it appears Atlas Air is operating almost like the carrier they replace on the KIAH to Angola route, World Airways, in offering both cargo and passenger charter services, altough this livery on the 747-400 is a one off job just for this specific route. It was fun to track this livery down, it was like spotting a rare bird by surprise, which incidentally, was the purpose of my vacation in Honduras! One more little tidbit, I didn't find out till I got home, but my March 3rd flight on the Continental NGs was the same day United finalized their absorption of Continental in the merger, effectively ending Continental's operations like their website, flight numbers, and such. So It turned out I participated in Airline history.I'm looking forward to re-enacting my vacation flights with the PMDG NGX. I even went so far as to download from Avsim the flightplans and paints for the Atlas Air 747 flight at KIAH, I can't wait to see how close to reality I can get.

Coming to Las Vegas I was on a 757-300. My return to Houston will be on a 737-900. I did ask the pilot (well no, I didn't. I'm shy like you) (he was walking down the jetway with me) but the subject trailed off into flight training, and unfortunately I did not see the cockpit. (it didn't matter anyway, it was an old and ugly 757) I was close! I'll try again tomorrow at KLAS, because you know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.Yes, Houston is where I live, so it's my "base". You're from Honduras, it seems. Nice!

[ZachLW 37]

Wondering what the charter was? Armed forces?Also, Atlas trains Air Force One pilots.

[NGXfanatic 85]

Charter is for oil service workers and executives, I presume from Houston where the economy is very much oil based, to commute to Angola.I was taken back to see Atlas go to that effort to paint their commerical charter 747 in a different livery than their cargo craft.