Shalom and greetings all my pals,

 

Here is moment all of you have been waiting for!! Here is eleventh part of continuing education of Caribbean aviation history!!!!! The topic for ninth part is MADDOGs and the role that the planes played in Caribbean!!!!!

 

The MD-80 series better known as MADDOGs was introduced into commercial service on October 10, 1980 and had seen lots of service action in Caribbean. Airlines using MADDOGS for Caribbean were BWIA, Air Jamaica, West Caribbean Airlines, Air Aruba (MD-90s), Redjet, Insel Air, Insel Air Aruba, Dutch Antilles Express, North America, and Dutch Caribbean Airlines.

 

Strange enough, Hawaiian Airline being in similar tropical island environment also used MADDOGs for some years but decided to dump MADDOGS in favor for 717-200s because the 717s are more suitable for the super-frequent cycles of inter-island flying than MADDOGs are.

 

Now, why are MD-80 series and MD-90 series called MADDOGs? Some said it is because It looks like a hot dog with wings, handles like a dog, and climb like a mad dog chasing God knows what. Some said that The "MD" prefix for the MD-80 series is the same as a notorious and cheap American wine, labeled MD 20/20 but commonly known as "Mad Dog 20/20". It offers a mighty mean buzz for the money. It's wine for folks who like to keep the bottle in the paper bag while they drink it. If you attended college in The U.S., there's a very good chance that your first experience with drinking waaaay too much was with "Mad Dog" MD 20/20.

 

 

Enough with theories of why MD-80/90 series is called MADDOGS!!!

 

Time for exciting flight!!!

 

Allow me to introduce BWIA's short one hour hop MADDOG flight from SVMI Simón Bolívar International Airport located in Maiquetía, Venezuela, about 13 miles from downtown Caracas to Piarco International Airport located about 16 miles east of Port of Spain which is the is the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago.

 

Look at beautiful MD-83!!!

 

 

Making u-turn to head to taxiway to taxi to short of runway 10

 

 

Still taxiing with background view of Guaracarumbo suburb

 

 

Entering into runway 10 for take off via OSMAR2 departure

 

 

 

Airborne now on climb to FL310 with background view of Maiquetia

 

 

Finished turning left to position to head to OSMAR leaving background view of SVMI and gorgeous coastal water

 

 

Climbing through clouds to FL310

 

 

Intercepting OSMAR with background view of El Avila National Park and heading to CBC

 

 

Because of regulations of the forums not allowing more than ten screenshots per post, please go to this link to view rest of SUPER GORGEOUS flight!!!

 

Here is link: http://vatil.org.il/vatil/board/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=40715

 

Thank you for viewing and stay tuned for next exciting flight!!

 

Regards,

 

Aharon

Great shots of one f the most beautiful planes ever made.

 

Lee

 

 

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Great shots as usual, Aharon. תודה!

 

Which MD-80 did you use ... Flight1?

definately the best paint you have used for your screenshots so far :)

Great shots once again, Aharon!!

Thanks Lee, JRMurray, DarthMop, and Venustus for your kind words.

 

Which MD-80 did you use ... Flight1

 

JRMurray,

 

It is good old-fashioned freeware SGA!!!!!! The trick to make any freeware add-on plane look like very expensive overpriced payware add-on plane is to find superb livery paint for freeware planes:):):)

 

Regards,

 

Aharon