Mastodawn

Sometimes it's hard to interpret what's going on with test pilots flying. Alaska's first 787 in the new livery #N784HA is returning to Charleston #KCHS 787 factory on a test flight. (It hadn't flown in 2 weeks so may be painted now.) It made a turn back to CHS from the middle of a circuit. Did they find a problem and abort? Maybe more likely it passed all planned tests and they decided to head back. If it's delivered soon then everything was fine. #Alaska787 #aviation #business #travel #avgeek

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Ian Kluft ✅✈️🎈🌋Dec 3

A sure sign the test flight of #Alaska787 #N784HA is going well and there was no urgent situation is the test maneuvers they continued to do on the way back to Charleston, including a go-around. They had more tests to do at low altitude. A separate question is who's flying. With the callsign Boeing 319, we know Boeing test pilots are on board. But Hawaiian/Alaska pilots could be doing a pre-delivery acceptance test flight. #aviation #business #travel #avgeek

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Ian Kluft ✅✈️🎈🌋Dec 6

Alaska is managing to not do what any avgeek expected. The first #Alaska787 in Alaska's new international aurora livery is on its delivery flight... to Los Angeles #KLAX? Arrival expected at 12:15pm US/Pacific. I was thinking Seattle. But now I think the Hawaiian Airlines 787 crew base hasn't moved from Honolulu to Seattle yet and that may be the next stop. Maybe relevant: tomorrow is a big day on the history calendar in Honolulu. https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N784HA/history/20251206/1510Z/KCHS/KLAX #B789 #aviation #business #travel #avgeek

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Ian Kluft ✅✈️🎈🌋Dec 6

Thanks to AirlineVideosLive's YouTube feed, we now know #Alaska787 N784HA is not painted in the new livery yet. It landed at LAX in all-white. Carbon fiber 787s get a base coat of white which is equivalent purpose to the green protective coating seen on new metal planes before painting. So why did they fly it to LAX if it isn't ready to enter service yet? Maybe it is taking pax before paint? #KLAX #B789 #aviation #business #travel #avgeek

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Manc AvGeek

@ikluft Several years ago, Jet2 had a bunch of brand new 738s delivered new from Boeing to Manchester, some in the grey and red livery, some all white with blue tails but no titles or sunburst logo on the tail, and some in all white - and they all did several revenue flights before going in to finish being painted.
Okay, so apparently that was because Boeing didn't want to upset another of their customers by painting the Jet2 planes in a very similar livery (compare the Jet2 Holidays livery to Allegiant!), but still...