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On The Airbands
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New livery, new callsign! Recently CP Air changed livery from the striking orange to red, white and blue. The name CP has gone in favour of Canadien. The callsign of Canadien airliners has also changed from ‘Empress’ to ‘Canadien (French spelling). Flight numbers into and out of Australia have changed from 311 etc. to 24, 22 and so on. So if you hear ‘Canadien two-two’, yes, it’s the old ‘Empress’ in a new package!
While we’re discussing alterations, “Kilo Charlie 202”, formerly an Ansett 767 with Cook Islands International titling, is now a Boeing 727, VH-RMN. The aircraft leaves Sydney in the evenings on Sunday, 1930 local to be precise. Flight number and callsign is now ‘PH856/KC202, with “Polynesian eight-five-six being the one they use on the radio. The aircraft serves the South Pacific region all week, returning to Australia (ASSY) 1700 local on Saturday afternoons.
Unlike the situation when Air NSW commenced flights from Brisbane to Norfolk, the aircraft have been identified for some time as ‘Victor Hotel-Foxtrot Kilo Alpha’ or similar and not as ‘New South eight-niner-one’. I understand that there was a bit of a cat-and-mouse game that was originally played out by Sydney FIS operators working oceanic HF and the Air NSW flight crews, early in the piece. The FIS operators referred to the aircraft as Victor Hotel-Foxtrot Kilo Alpha’ and the flight crews replied as ‘New South eight-niner-one”. This stand-off continued until sanity prevailed and the ‘New South’ callsign was sent reeling away to the far reaches of the ether. One positive benefit for airband enthusiasts is that you know which aircraft is being used on the operation, without having to check back through the list of selcal codes.
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