Howard Air Force Base Panama MPHO

[connieguy]

I am looking at flying Eric Joiner's fine paint of the Panagra DC-7B. I believe that Panagra was based in Miami but am not clear whether their aircraft flew from there. The 1956 timetable suggests that PanAm did the flight from there to Panama Balboa, but did Panagra count as PanAm out of Miami? Balboa is Howard Air Force Base - MPHO - for which John Stinstrom did a scenery for the 1990s, before it closed. This can be backdated  - I have shortened the runway to what seems a plausible mid 1950s length - though I am not looking to make a big thing of it. I have also provided it with civilian gates. Should Panagra ai aircraft be present in the 1955 Traffic? I am guessing that they were the only civilian airline allowed to use it. Many thanks in advance,

Ken

[Tom/CalClassic]

The PANAGRA pages of the 1955 OAG says "Panama City/Balboa #". The # footnote reads "Tocumen Airport serves Balboa, Cristobal, Ancon, CZ, and Panama City, RP, pursuant to the US/Panama bilateral Air Transport Agreement."

Therefore PANAGRA used Tocumen airport, just like all the other airlines.

The 1955 AI traffic flies the PANAGRA DC-3, DC-6B, and DC-7B.

Hope this helps,

[connieguy]

I hadn't looked at the OAG but at the Panagra timetable for 1955. The passage you quote is given there at the end under Passenger Information and hence I had missed it. The 1955 Traffic is at Tocumen as you say, and though there is no period version there is a modern one which is better than the default scenery. One of the two runways is less wide than the other and seems likely to be the older, though without seeing a period chart there is no way of knowing. I have just done the flight cruising at FL120 because of strong side winds higher up, took off five minutes late on the schedule and landed twenty minutes late. However, the ai equivalent of Flight 701 landed shortly after I did. They did fly from Miami. Many thanks.

[Defender]

If it's of use Ken FG has Tocumen 03/21 7,000x200 concrete in 1956 extended to 8,800 in 1960.

Bill

[connieguy]

Yes, that is useful thank you Bill. I had to do an ADE to provide ATIS and then I could only shorten the runway by deleting the buildings and replacing them with something more period. However, that is good. The parallel but staggered other runway is narrower and has the ILS, though ATC does not use that for landing. I assume that was a great deal shorter too.

[Bernard]

Some few years ago I basically did this here (actually with 1955 traffic):



Bernard

[Tom/CalClassic]

I’m glad you are enjoying the traffic. My last big project.

[connieguy]

The Traffic is quite remarkable, but that is true of so many elements of CalClassic. I have just done the same flight again and was even later, but tomorrow it should be Panama-Lima, which will be fun.

[Tom/CalClassic]

And Ken, in 1956 the PANAGRA aircraft flew all the way from New York to South America. It was an interchange flight between National, Pan Am, and PANAGRA. In this era everything used the "temporary terminal" at Idlewild (which lasted for years and years), switching to the Pan Am terminal when it was built. Before 1956 they flew from Miami to South America, over Pan Am to Panama.

A picture of a PANAGRA DC-8 at New York:

www.airliners.net/photo/Pan-American-Grace-Airways-Panagra/Douglas-DC-8-31/127686/L

A PANAGRA ad describing the through service:

www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/pg/pg5609/pg5609-1.jpg

[connieguy]

Thanks Tom. I had that 1956 timetable but failed to recognise its significance, and though the meaning of the words 'No change of plane from New York..' is unmistakeable the way that the early legs are attributed in the timetable to NAL and PAA because they were over their routes I found confusing - hence one of the questions I asked in my first post. However, I am enjoying flying the DC-7B and am probably going to spend quite some time on this, never having been on the west coast of South America before.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Those are fun routes to fly, I agree. And interchange flights can be very confusing.