SkyWest Flies Final EMB-120 Flight

SkyWest flew its final EMB-120 flight Tuesday from Santa Maria, California to Los Angeles. SkyWest has been operating them since the late 1980s. http://airwaysnews.com/blog/2015/05/06/skywest-flies-final-emb-120-flight/

I have worked as an aircraft mechanic for 27 years. My first aviation job was for United Express then operated by Westair Airlines out of Fresno, CA. At that time we had a large fleet of EMB-120’s. It was an outstanding aircraft, it had speed and great handling. It was also every easy to work on and maintain from a maintenance stand point. The 2 1800 shaft horse power Pratt & Whitney PW 1800 engines could push it at over 300 knots. I remember and incident at SFO, one of our fully loaded Brasilia’s had an engine failure on take off. The flt crew reported, they were able to maintain a climb rate of over 1600 foot per minute on 1 engine. Talk about a Hot Rod. As the first plane I ever put a wrench to, it will be missed.

Gary D.
FedEx
SEA Line Maintenance

This leaves Charter Air Transport dba Via Air as the only remaining scheduled passenger operator of the E-120 in the US and the various versions of the Dash 8 as the only Turboprops operated under major airline branding within the US. Once the Republic Q400 service ends later this year, the only major brand Turboprops will be the Horizon Q400’s, Commutair/UAX Q200/300’s and the AA/US/Piedmont -100’s and -300’s (which are also slated for retirement in the relatively near future).

Berry Aviation based in Hamilton Ontario fly into KBUF to clear customs and then fly charters, we see charter air transport “stingray” a lot as well…almost daily from either KBUF or KIAG