[First of all, this post is motivated by a recent member post, here, about a Douglas C-47 in the livery of "Aeropostal" (please note no "e" at the end of the name...)...]

I've long known the above two airlines (Aeropostal and Aéropostale), the former (without the "e") is from Venezuela (S.A.), and the other (with the "e") was an airmail company from Toulouse, France, and the genetic root of Air France. In one of my previous posts, I'd made a reference to Aéropostale, in connection with a few screenshots of the classic single-engined monoplane "Latécoère 28". I'd noted in that post, "The modern Air France, as we know it today, has a (birth) connection to Aéropostale (and Latécoère 28). Aéropostale was named Air France, in August 1933, following the takeover of the assets of the airline. Two months later, Air France was officially inaugurated at the Paris-Le Bourget Airport in October 1933. It then moved its operations to Paris, while formally using the (iconic) winged seahorse logo (the Latécoère planes were the first to carry this famous logo; an image of Latécoère 28, in the color of Air France, shown below)".

So, that's Aéropostale...! Now, there is also a connection between Aéropostale and Aeropostal (of this post), though the two airlines originated, far apart, isolated by the vast North Atlantic Ocean. In 1929, Aéropostale company arrived in Venezuela to start an air service, and, (not surprisingly) three Latécoère 28's carried out the first flights of the new airline, on July 3, 1929. Then, on December 31, 1933, the Venezuelan government purchased this new airline (henceforth, to be referred to as Aeropostal, and, of course, not to be confused with Aéropostale...).

With over 90 long years of service, to the present day, Aeropostal is one of the oldest airlines in S.A, and, as expected, has a fascinating history of fleet evolution. It goes like this - (Latécoère 28 -> DC-3/C-47 -> DC-4 -> Lockheed Constellation -> Vickers Viscount -> HS 748 -> DC-8 -> DC-9/MD-80 -> A320). The (long-standing) logo of this airline consists of a (yellow) flying bird, on the tail-fin of the planes (see images, below). If interested, you may also compare the livery of my (Aeropostal) DC-9, here, below, with that of the (Aeropostal) DC-3/C-47 shown, in the (other) post I've cited above.

And, my locale, for this post, the Valdez airport, has a most unique geography: Surrounded by high peaks and mountains (see images), the Airport sits at the deep end of a steep walled fjord that leads to Prince William Sound. The airport has only one published (LDA-H) approach procedure to its Rwy 06. And, myself, being a (non-pilot) purely virtual simmer, I remind myself (and other virtual simmers, like me), here, that, "LDA (Localizer Directional Aid) is like a LOC approach, except it's "not" aligned with the runway, due to adjacent terrain and other obstacles that prevent the localizer antenna from being aligned with the runway". So, the last segment of an LDA approach must be flown visually, after breaking off the localizer guidance (here, I've flown straight-in from about 10 nms or so; please see screenshots).

So, find below, 2 sets of (Aeropostal) images from 2 independent (short) flights: first, an (Aeropostal) DC-9-21 lifting off PAVD Rwy 24, the only direction it can take off, and climbing to the approach altitude of 7,800 ft (see [VC] close-up shot), and, next, please note, the rest of the images belong to a (longer) DC-9-51 variant, (I found, also in the color of Aeropostal), approaching and landing on Rwy 06, the only direction it can land. The two sets of images are separated by the single screenshot of a classic "Latécoère 28", a plane that had given the very first wings of flight to both Aéropostale and Aeropostal airlines...!

Hope you enjoy these images of this Douglas T-Tail (rear-mounted) twinjet, one of my (all-time) favorite classics (devoid of FMS/CDU/GTN etc....🙂...),...seen, here, in the sky around Valdez Pioneer Field, Alaska...!

[SkySim (DC-9), Orbx (PAVD/SAK)]

Awesome shots buddy! 😉 

Another big set of great shots - both Thumbs up !!

cheers 😉

Thank you, friends...!!