Not really GA, but I thought it might be of interest.
As we drove past Nice airport the other day, I glimpsed what I thought was a 727 in the gap between two buildings. I looked on Wikipedia, there are 38 of them still flying globally apparently. I figured it must have been a Falcon or something, and thought no more of it.
From our terrace we have a grandstand view of planes taking off from Nice. I just saw one which was trailing a black cloud behind it – as all planes used to, a long time ago. I was curious, so I FR24’ed it.
And yep, it was that 727, on its way to Le Bourget. It belongs to Starling Aviation, a Cayman Islands based company, and it’s registered in the Isle of Man – M-STAR. Apparently it’s 40 years old, which must make it one of the very last ones. But even so!
Some interesting bits about the 727, for the younger ones among us.
I used to work under the LFPB approach path and everytime I heard a louder jet noise it was M-STAR. It is 10 times louder than the newer jets.
Except when it was a fighter or a B-1B bomber landing for Paris Airshow. These don’t count 
I remember getting a Libyan Airlines one on a flight from Tripoli to Benghazi before “the democracy” revolution… like stepping back in time to time before my time…
M-STAR is a stunningly beautiful version of the series 200. If I won the lottery I would love to buy it. Almost as nice as Mr Trumps 72.
I saw another exec 727 at Verona similar to M-STAR. Stunning machines..
M-STAR is being dismantled at Kemble.link
There’s two at Southend. One and Three are 217’s. Has some umph
Jujupilote wrote:
M-STAR is being dismantled at Kemble
Pity. Someone should grab the fusellage as a whole and turn it into a “tiny house”… with all the lovely furniture inside it might be really cool.
But with the planning permissions in the UK… unlikely me thinks. In the US however…
Some of those planes are simply stunning. I recall the Quatari Boeing 747SP which regularly came to ZRH under the registration VP-BAT. Many of us would have given a bit of somewhat to see that cabin… then our “prayers” got heard and Sam Chui managed to make a video of it. Now that is a plane you could live in…
Not sure what happened to it since. Friend of mine who was a 747SP captain somewhere in the sand but not on that one told me shortly after this video that it was possible going to some evangelist preacher and he hoped to fly it, but have not heard since.
As of 8 months ago N7477S (ex Qatar Amiri VP-BAT) was in outside desert storage at Pinal Air Park, outside of Tucson AZ. Photo Link Lots of similar stuff in storage there.
Silvaire wrote:
As of 8 months ago N7477S (ex Qatar Amiri VP-BAT) was in outside desert storage at Pinal Air Park, outside of Tucson AZ.
It may well be that the ferry Sam was on might have been the final flight of this wonderful airplane.
The 2nd one on the pic you linked is P4-FSH which belonged to Ernest Angley Ministries. Ernest Angley died in 2021 at the age of 99.
The flight in the video happened in 2019. Quite possibly it may have been intended to either replace P4-FSH, which had some maintenance issues by then.
