Slick looking Saab
 

Hey I was just in LFT yesterday and noticed a very slick painted Mesaba Saab in Delta Colors. For us saab drivers its always nice to see a newly painted one cause it hides the fact of how old and crappy the plane is... But hey its fun to fly!!

no pics?????? u fail:p

I'm sorry but....ewwwww

say what you want, but for a girl with 40,000+ cycles, she still looks pretty good.

I dunno... the forward part of the vertical fin should have been blue to match the rest of the tail, and the "widget" doesn't even come close to fitting on the tail. I think it is an awkward scheme. And who in their right mind paints a prop white? You need more dark colors to hide the stains!

I saw a Saab in LFT last week in this new livery (same airplane maybe?) and I personally thought it looked pretty good.

Slick looking Saab???
 

That could be the definition of an Oxymoron.

40, 000 cycles.......it's a ***** in a wedding dress :D

Let the "Curse of the new Delta paint" begin...
ala Big Sky...
Adios Mesaba great knowing you...

Paint looks great! Nice face lift...

Heard something the other day maybe an XJ pilot can confirm or deny. I was told the reason your two letter airline code is "XJ" was because the founder of the company was a big Jaguar fan. BTW saw a DAL painted Saab yesterday in DTW, looking nice.:D

Slick looking Sabb
 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3297/...d9bd926c_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3651/...5f43ba63fb.jpg

1985 SAAB 340A For Sale At Controller.com

BTW: I like the Saab in the DL colors.

Nice flame bait snopilot... not gonna bite.

As for the mighty saab... yes, she does look good in the new paint. Our saabs are the "newest" saabs out there and with their new interiors and new paint are hardly pieces of junk. Sure, they rattle, buzz and shake... but they're maintained well and are performing well in their niche for DL and flying them is certainly better than picking up an unemployment check. 40,000 cycles is a bit of an exageration don't you think?

As for XJ and its origins... I don't know. We were an airline long before Bedford showed up, so it would be interesting to know what our two letter code was before his arrival. I've heard the same theory however, with the Jaguars.

The real question is - when will she have a red nose? Looking sharp in the new paint though!

Good call bored... I was just being an arse..
No harm meant..
adios
s

LoL but that is one helluva sharp looking aircraft...!

The leading edge of the vertical stab is covered in a black rubber de-ice boot. I'd rather have de-ice capability than color uniformity. :)

But I agree that the 'widget' is way too big for the tail.

What's the line from the SWA commercial, the kid tugs on the brides dress and says "my mommy said she can't believe you wore white today." :D

I'm not so sure...'cause we all know the Canadians say the tail doesn't pick up any ice :rolleyes:

Uhhhh, DAL owns Mesaba again. They also have a bunch of CRJ-900's which makes them way more valuable then Big Sky. Also, the type of agreement that Big Sky entered into with DAL is what did them in. (Paying for fuel, etc). They weren't EAS routes giving guaranteed profits. Two COMPLETELY different situations.

Again? When did they own us before? =) You're right... Mesaba and BigSky = two totally different animals.

Wasn't Mesaba once owned by NWA then sold, then bought again when in BK? As I recall it worked out quite well for NWA because the got XJ for very cheap due to the fact they were in BK.

No... we were always a separate entity until NWA "purchased" us from the sham bankruptcy they sent us to. There were talks in 2001 to buy us, like they did Pinnacle (then Express I) but RA decided at the time it didn't make sense to own your regional partners, so the offer was dropped.

Nice pic; sharp looking!!!:cool:



atp

Looks nice. My favorite facelift was still ASAs old Embraer 120s. The looked so much better than that old "burger king" paint job they used to have.

Maybe yours are younger. Ours typically have 35,000 hours and 40,000 cycles. :eek:

Figure it this way... 7 legs per day, 300 days flying per year, for 20 years is 42,000.

I kind of like it!

Thanks for the clarification. :)

Ours are younger... all B+ and delivered new from Saab and were the last ones off the assembly line. They're all from the late 90s, so the oldest one is slightly older than 10 years.

re
 

if it isnt mainline its a junker...the end

I can still feel my teeth rattling from the last time I was on one...Looks better than the NW scheme but as a pax..yuck!

Actually as a pax I love it because it puts me right to sleep and no middle seat. Saw the paint job in person today at A46c in Detroit and was really impressed. Sad to say though there is already chipping paint above the windshield revealing the good ol' fleshy pink underneath.

One thing Comair FOs learned about the new Delta livery -

When you do the preflight, always walk right up to the fuselage, real close, so the pitot is almost in your ear... and make sure it still says Mesaba on it.

Ditto, i'm passed out soon after takeoff.

Oh yeah you need binoculars. I can just see an earlier morning show in a city with a bunch of DALX birds...."AM I ON THE RIGHT PLANE!?" :p

Ahaha same, I actually prefer riding in the Saab over an ERJ or CR2.

I miss the saab. There is something about the saab when you put it in beta that makes the female pax tingly!

some people on this forum complain about the sf340....they are lucky they never had to fly in a Beech-99, twin otter, shorts 330, emb-110, ...which were the planes code share partners flew before the dam broke. I still have a rejection letter from air virginia in 1981= they wanted 2000tt, 1500multi, 500turbine as a minimum for a f/o position on the SA-227...

Alot of people complain about the Saab including myself. However, after several years flying her, I can say she is a success. They built like 600 of them and flying all over the world.

Wow, I never thought I'd see the BE99 grouped in a $#it list like that. Sure, it's slow and unpressurized, but grouped on the most hated list with the twin otter and the shorts 330.... really?

I personally love Beech turboprops. I could definitely see myself spending several years in a King Air if the job were right.