When the freeware Twin Otter came by Premiere Aircraft Designs (PAD) out I did a re-paint of it to depict a plane from Executive Airlines, which operated in the Northeast in the 1970s. I remember as a child going to the airport with my older brother and hiding in the trees off the end of the runway waiting for one of these to arrive. They were the biggest planes operating out of Augusta, Maine (KAUG) and they sure were exciting to see when they took off and landed. The photo I found to base my repaint on was N386EX. It was just the first clear photo I found with the paint job I was looking for.
Today I was going through my box of old stuff I've saved over the years and came across a newspaper article my sister sent me many years ago, in the 1980s. It was an account, by one of the passengers, of an emergency landing into a field in Maine of an Air New England DHC-6. While looking at this newspaper clipping again, I noticed that the registration number is the same as the one I based my repaint on! So I did some Googling and was amazed at what I found.
The plane started out as the Executive Airlines livery I made, then was sold to Frontier Airlines in 1972. By the end of the 1970s it was back in New England operating with Air New England. It was with this airline that the plane had the accident that required the pilots to land in a field near Unity Maine on May 12 1981.
My 1983 it was sold again to Grand Canyon Airlines, and used to fly tourists over the Big Ditch in Arizona. On June 18 1986 this plane was destroyed in a collision with a helicopter over the Grand Canyon. There were no survivors.
Some links:
N386EX in Executive Airlines colors:
http://aviation-safety.net/photos/displayphoto.php?id=19860618-1&vnr=1&kind=PO
Fatal Grand Canyon accident as N76GC, June 1986
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19860618-1
The Lostflights website story on the Grand Canyon accident:
http://www.lostflights.org/Grand-Canyon-Aviation/61886-Grand-Canyon/5008031_yuJWd
NTSB report of the emergency landing in Maine, 1981:
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=26668&key=0
I have since updated the paint for the Aerosoft FSX version:
Today I was going through my box of old stuff I've saved over the years and came across a newspaper article my sister sent me many years ago, in the 1980s. It was an account, by one of the passengers, of an emergency landing into a field in Maine of an Air New England DHC-6. While looking at this newspaper clipping again, I noticed that the registration number is the same as the one I based my repaint on! So I did some Googling and was amazed at what I found.
The plane started out as the Executive Airlines livery I made, then was sold to Frontier Airlines in 1972. By the end of the 1970s it was back in New England operating with Air New England. It was with this airline that the plane had the accident that required the pilots to land in a field near Unity Maine on May 12 1981.
My 1983 it was sold again to Grand Canyon Airlines, and used to fly tourists over the Big Ditch in Arizona. On June 18 1986 this plane was destroyed in a collision with a helicopter over the Grand Canyon. There were no survivors.
Some links:
N386EX in Executive Airlines colors:
http://aviation-safety.net/photos/displayphoto.php?id=19860618-1&vnr=1&kind=PO
Fatal Grand Canyon accident as N76GC, June 1986
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19860618-1
The Lostflights website story on the Grand Canyon accident:
http://www.lostflights.org/Grand-Canyon-Aviation/61886-Grand-Canyon/5008031_yuJWd
NTSB report of the emergency landing in Maine, 1981:
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=26668&key=0
I have since updated the paint for the Aerosoft FSX version:
