BCal and the Omega 707s
Whilst looking into the histories of the former BCal 707 fleet, two were found to have made their way to Omega Air.
Omega is the only civilian operator licensed to conduct air to air refuelling of military aircraft, they are also now the leading source of 707 spares in the world, to keep their own aircraft airworthy and to sell on to others. They regularly buying good 707s as they come onto the market to either use as tankers or as donor aircraft.
Omega acquired both G-BDKE (became N623RH) and G-BDLM (became N629RH) from the Royal Australian Air Force in April 2011 for refit and operation into their tanker programme.
An email from Omega's Tom Swiderek in April 2016 said:-
"Yes, both those aircraft are still in our fleet at Omega Air. In fact, we just finished a conversion on N629RH and it should be going into flying service in the next few months with an upgraded hose reel system installed. N623RH is currently parked but we plan on it receiving a similar mod as 629RH."
Tom went on to mention that Omega and their tankers had been the subject of a documentary in the Mighty Planes series. Though the flight scenes used another 707 (N624RH), the hangar scenes show work underway on N629RH (ex G-BDLM).
The episode to look out for is Mighty Planes - Season 2 Episode 1
Here is some footage of another of Omega's 707s, N707MQ which gives a flavour of how BCal's former 707s will look like now.
Omega is the only civilian operator licensed to conduct air to air refuelling of military aircraft, they are also now the leading source of 707 spares in the world, to keep their own aircraft airworthy and to sell on to others. They regularly buying good 707s as they come onto the market to either use as tankers or as donor aircraft.
Omega acquired both G-BDKE (became N623RH) and G-BDLM (became N629RH) from the Royal Australian Air Force in April 2011 for refit and operation into their tanker programme.
An email from Omega's Tom Swiderek in April 2016 said:-
"Yes, both those aircraft are still in our fleet at Omega Air. In fact, we just finished a conversion on N629RH and it should be going into flying service in the next few months with an upgraded hose reel system installed. N623RH is currently parked but we plan on it receiving a similar mod as 629RH."
Tom went on to mention that Omega and their tankers had been the subject of a documentary in the Mighty Planes series. Though the flight scenes used another 707 (N624RH), the hangar scenes show work underway on N629RH (ex G-BDLM).
The episode to look out for is Mighty Planes - Season 2 Episode 1
Here is some footage of another of Omega's 707s, N707MQ which gives a flavour of how BCal's former 707s will look like now.
