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I know some of you are really good at this.

I converted a bunch of old home movie 8mm films to DVD a few years back. One of the scenes was at MAF in about 1971, some of the family getting onto a Continental DC-9 headed for Denver, and then they changed planes to go on to Alaska. The N number was visible when I paused it, N8907. I have an old DC-9 book with information on all of them built, but it is old at this point and I would like to know if this plane is still around and maybe any other details available about it.

I made copies of the DVD's and sent them to remaining family around the country, and printed up this bit of trivia to send with them. Here's the info I was able to put together about it in 2004:

It was the 156th DC-9 built and it was delivered to Continental on August 29, 1967. It was later sold to AirCanada. It is currently owned by a contract freight company named Ameristar (2004) and as of June, 1998 had flown 42,656 hours and 53,614 cycles.

This is entirely for my curiosity only, just wanted to see what you all could find out about it. Thanks for any info!

Queso wrote: just wanted to see what you all could find out about it.

She's still in service with Ameristar.



http://www.planespotters.net/Production ... ristar.php

Wow, 45 years old and still flying. That amazes me.

Thanks for the info and link, Shy.

Damn. Ameristar has hubs in Dallas and El Paso, so it probably flies over me once in a while. But I don't guess I'll ever be able to watch for it....

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N785TW

N785TW - SIERRA AMERICAN CORP (WILMINGTON DE)
This aircraft (N785TW) is not available for public tracking per request from the owner/operator.

ShyFlyer wrote:

Queso wrote: just wanted to see what you all could find out about it.

She's still in service with Ameristar.

Probably not anymore. Ameristar has chopped their fleet. Of the three DC-9s they had, I think only 784 is still in use. I'm pretty sure that 785 was replaced by a MD-80. She's still owned by Ameristars parent company though, so it's probably parked somewhere. The third of their DC-9s is rotting on the ramp at ADS.

I found a picture of it about to depart Paine Field for PHX in December 2010, but that's the latest one I've seen. Haven't checked TSTSNBN.

http://paineairport.com/kpae3396.htm

I haven't seen any photos beyond 2010, so it looks like Click is right.

Amazing, after 53 years it's STILL flying several times each day some days! Can anyone find out approximately how many hours it has on it now?

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N785TW

No idea of the hours (the cycles must be up there too judging by that schedule) but Andy Egloff saw it last week at KADS:



I know it's one of the Ameristar aircraft that carries live animal equipment, though I suspect it's more dogs and lobsters than the racehorses that usually travel by 727.