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The Last Mesaba Fokker F.27, Part One

Written on October 25, 2024 - Posted in Captain's Log, Tail Chasers

By Gary C. Orlando

All photos by the author.

In 1994 I sadly learned Mesaba Aviation, dba Northwest Airlink, had shrunk its Fokker F.27 fleet down to just one aircraft. Their once proud fleet of 15 Fokkers had been slowly replaced with DeHaviland Dash 8-100s. Their last F.27 in the fleet was N278MA, a vintage 1965 series 200 model originally built for Ansett Australia. It flew for Ansett, Airlines of South Australia, Air Niugini, back to Ansett, and then to Luxair. Mesaba took ownership of the aircraft in November 1989. With that in mind, I aimed to fly on their last Fokker F.27.

I accomplished that feat with a flight on February 2, 1995. I flew from Rockford, IL (RFD) to Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) on an Express I/NW Airlink Jetstream J31. I used my travel agent pass privileges for both Express I and to fly on the Mesaba Fokker, which had a mid-afternoon flight between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Wausau/Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA).

The flight would be a quick trip over and back to “C-WAY” as the Mesaba agents called it. This would not be my last time flying ole N278MA, as later in 1995 I would be invited as a guest on its final revenue flights. I’ll share more about that trip in Part Two.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my photos of the roundtrip to C-WAY.

Walking out to ole N278MA for our little jaunt over to Wausau/Central Wisconsin.

I asked one of the Mesaba Agents to take a picture of me pointing to the tail number. Such a nerd!

The best place to watch the landing gear retract is right next to the engine. Here we are airborne off of Runway 29R.

Where we were just parked. Gosh, we were climbing like crazy!

Props buzzing along in cruise pitch enroute to C-WAY.

Initiating our descent and heading back down into the clouds.

Gear down for landing in snowy Central Wisconsin. Oops, my sweater sleeve got in the way of my lens.

After a quick turn, it’s time to climb back aboard old N278MA and return to the Twin Cities.

United Feeder Service (originally Air Wisconsin) British Aerospace ATP, N856AW awaiting passengers for the trip back to Chicago O’Hare.

Back onboard to Minneapolis/St. Paul. Looking at this interior, it’s hard to believe this airplane is 30 years old.

Penny Sandahl, our very attentive flight attendant. Penny said she would make sure I knew about this aircraft’s last revenue flight. She made good on her promise and I’ll write about that in Part Two of this adventure.

Back in the Twin Cities, mission accomplished! Now I had to get over to the other side of the airport for my ride back to Rockford.

Stay tuned for Part Two.

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The Last Mesaba Fokker F.27, Part One

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