After a year without a spotting road trip it was time to hit the road again. After some work related activities in Idaho I relocated to the Phoenix and Tucson area mainly for the stored C-20's at AMARG. But being in Arizona some other airfields where visited also. So let's get started with some pictures and a full log.

 

18-10-2019 Scottsdale (AZ)

GIV N18TD (1145) G450 N452FX (4334) G500 N56EL (72028) G550 N608CL (5262).

 

Highlight was the G500 owned by Enterprise Rent-A-Car which is a car rental company headquartered in Clayton, Missouri, USA. Enterprise Rent-A-Car was established in 1957 in St. Louis, Missouri by Jack C. Taylor. The company was in 1969 renamed 'Enterprise' after the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise on which he served during WWII. Enterprise Rent-A Car is the largest rental car company in the United States.

Then it was on to Tucson and AMARG. Tucson International Airport only gave me one Gulfstream (GIII, N338UA (338)) but AMARG was the main target. Since some years the US Armed forces started with decommissioning their military used C-20's. At this moment there are 8 C-20's stored at AMARG (and 2 Gulfstream I / TC-4's (155724 (180) and 155726 (183) which are at AMARG since 1994 and 1995).             I needed 3 of the C-20's and saw them all during a short walk along the fence of AMARG area 20 at Kolb Road.

 

18-10-2019 AMARG (AZ)

C-20B 86-0202 (468) C-20C 85-0049 (456), 85-0050 (458) C-20E 87-0140 (498), 91-0108 (1162) C-20G 165093 (1187) C-20K 87-0139 (497)

 

C-20C 86-0403 (473) is displayed in Celebrity Row.

 

On Saturday I managed to reach the Los Angeles area. First stops: Santa Anna and Long Beach.

 

19-10-2019 Santa Anna (CA)

GIV N517ML (1050), N216HZ (1147), N722NK (1203), N2107Z (1211), N598GS (1258), N226RS (1479) G450 N1963N (4268), N116MK (4357) G650 N4050 (6368)

 

19-10-2019 Long Beach (CA)

GV N1222P (606), N1AM (623) G550 M-BJEP (5070), N550WW (5214), VP-CAT (5482), N319PP (5513), N237GA (5523), N904JY (5577) G500 N500H (72012) G650 N521HN (6027), N476V (6300), N399GA (6319), N500ES (6397), N750HF (6399)

On the 20th I visited Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Van Nuys. Van Nuys was as always Gulfstream heaven. With no less then 40 Gulfstreams (YES, 40!) on the ground and a great viewing area a couple of hours in the sun was no punishment at all. Five out of 40 where new frames for me.

 

20-10-2019 Los Angeles International (CA)

GIV N958BX (1227), N318JW (1530) GV N363JG (594) G650 A7-CGF (6366)

 

The brand new G650ER of Qatar Executive (the VIP division of Qatar Airways) was a nice catch as it was only delivered in June of this year.

 

20-10-2019 Van Nuys (CA)

GII N264CL (227) GIII N44HB (437), N62MV (484) GIV N924MB (1023), N477GG (1032), N63NM (1066), N457DS (1077), N4DP (1097), N310 (1109), N763DB (1114), N160LD (1115), N209HM (1118), N962SS (1121), N619A (1123), N403TB (1191), N700MV (1233), N999NB (1234), N432HC (1262), N267LG (1266), N728LB (1296), N226MP (1300), N746GG (1331), N104AD (1406), N451KR (1451), N606PS (1477), N899AL (1495) GV N776RB (585), N955CM (592), N363JG (594), N619GV (619) G450 N450DT (4004), N913HH (4083) G550 HZ-SK6 (5038), N885GM (5046), N75CC (5065), N314TP (5104), N41PM (5177), N260DL (5301), N336EB (5525), N551AV (5569)

 

The beautiful black GIV N269HM belongs to Larry Flynt who is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications (LPF). LPF mainly produces magazines such as Hustler porn magazine. Larry Flynt is paralyzed from the waist down due to injuries sustained in a 1978 murder attempt by serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin.

 

A nice fact about the stored Clay Lacy GII N264CL (227) is that it appeared in the 1998 American science fiction disaster film Armageddon. The movie was directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton and Liv Tyler. It was the highest-grossing film of 1998.

On my way to the NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Las Vegas I passed through some great desert airports. Almost all of them have some old Gulfstreams stored with California City on top of the list.

 

At Lancaster Fox Field (CA) I found Gulfstream III N555GL (403) withdrawn from use outside the Milestones of Flight Air Museum. The museum appears to be permanently closed and I was not aware that this GIII was stored here.

 

21-10-2019 Lancaster (CA)

GIII N555GL (403)

 

21-10-2019 Mojave (CA)

GII N660AF (70), N805NA (221), N860PM (224) GII N353VA (371), N461GT (411), N213BA (453), N384BB (496) GIV N168WM (1002), N428BC (1128)

 

21-10-2019 California City (CA)

GII N44YS (098), GIII N200AB (393), GIV N710WJ (1007), N41SC (1144), ex JA001G (1190)

 

I did not list all the Gulfstreams at California City but only the new ones for me and some interesting ones like N510AG and ex JA001G.

 

Ex JA001G (1190) is a very rare airframe as it was only flown in Japan and I saw this Gulfstream at Tokyo Haneda airport in 2014. In 1993 and 1995 the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) acquired two Gulfstream IV aircraft. The JCAB is the Japanese equivalent of the U.S. FAA. C/n 1190 was registered to GAC in October 1992 as N403GA. On 21 September 1993 the aircraft was registered JA001G. On hand-over of this first JCAB aircraft it was subjected to unprecedented acceptance testing. Two days were spent looking over the paperwork before the actual aircraft was even approached. All onboard avionics were bench-tested an then tested again onboard. The GIV flew for 100 hours of testing when 20 is the norm. Japanese standards! N404GA was registered to GAC in September 1994. On 15 November 1995 it  got its new registration (JA002G). Okura & Company bought both aircraft from GAC and then sold them to the customer (all foreign sales to the Japanese Government require a Japanese 'trading partner'). Both aircraft are where operated  from Tokyo-Haneda as flight checkers for navaid/airfield calibration. in April of this year 1190 arrived at Norm Hill Aviation, California City.

21-10-2019 Las Vegas McCarran (NV)

GIII N32MJ (460) GIV N368AG (1087), N619A (1123), N110SN (1208), N151SD (1249), N972MS (1285), N572MS (1352), N352BH (1393), N386JD (1460) GV N383LS (544), N55BM (560), N17FJ (607) G450 N450RG (4038), N519HC (4137), N818C (4151), N945MM (4165) G550 N565JM (5538)

 

GIV N151SD had great Mayweather titles on the fuselage, which represents Floyd Mayweather, a former world champion boxer and now boxing promoter.  The aircraft with titles is  shown in the picture below.

 

N32MJ is the Gulfstream III of Magic Johnson, the world famous former basketball player. Magic was one of the keynote speakers at the NBAA-BACE.

The biggest announcement at the 2019 NBAA was the introduction of the new Gulfstream flagship the G700. A full-scale mockup of the new aircraft and a video of the aircraft taxiing under its own power at Gulfstream headquarters in Savannah, Georgia was shown during the launch. The G700 features the tallest, widest and longest cabin in business aviation and has a range of 13,890km at Mach 0.85 or 11,853km at Mach 0.90. The G700 flight-test fleet will incorporate five traditional test aircraft and one fully outfitted production test aircraft. Manufacturing for all test aircraft is well underway. Gulfstream anticipates G700 customer deliveries in 2022.

 

22-10-2019 Las Vegas Henserson (NV)

GIV N929SD (1024) GV N50KU (659) G450 VH-NKD (4068) G500 N507GD (72007) G550 N1972N (5121), N415P (5312), N890A (5371), N550GH (5477), N550GD (5574) G600 N600GU (73006) G650 N1872 (6255), N650GF (6341)

 

22-10-2019 Las Vegas McCarran (NV)

GIV N584ER (1112), N910AF (1312), N1979L (1480), HI1025 (1500) G450 N450RG (4038), N821CN (4085), N1963N (4268) G550 N790DC (5067), N550JH (5492), N88WR (5576) G650 N666HD (6196), N555GA (6334)

After my visit to the NBAA the trip was unfortunately almost over. The last 2 days in Florida however gave me some great new Gulfstream frames like GIII 875 and GV 699. LV-IRQ belongs to the famous FC Barcelona football player, Lionel Messi. His shirtno. 10 is painted on the tail of the aircraft.

 

23-10-2019 Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood (FL)

GIV N120WJ (1004), N888MP (1268), N616RR (1368), HI1050 (1482) GV N416RJ (587)

 

23-10-2019 Fort Lauderdale - Executive (FL)

GII N1218C (99), N721CN (206) GIII XA-LNP (323), N320MK (370), N500EF (400), N975RG (471) GIV N113WJ (1173), N454VR (1454) GV N588AT (601), N150WJ (658), LV-IRQ (699) G550 N1AE (5088) 

 

23-10-2019 Boca Raton (FL)

GIV N1904W (1237) G450 N704JC (4003), N499SC (4135) G550 N801AS (5097)

 

23-10-2019 West Palm Beach (FL)

GIII N400AA (362), N888SM (367), N560SH (404) GIV N995GG (1074) N213EF (1283) GV N808JG (598), N1DC (651) G550 N768JJ (5217), P4-BFY (5418), OK-KKF (5426)

 

A real surprise was the amount of Gulfstreams at St. Lucie / Fort Pierce. At the Aircraft Service Center facility more then 10 Gulfstreams were noted. This in contrast to Okeechobee. Some years ago various Gulfstreams were present and worked on. Now only one was noted!

 

23-10-2019 St. Lucie / Fort Pierce (FL)

GII N125DC (25), N188DC (188) GIII N456BE (335), N774MB (339), N461AR (384), N36DA (450), N228MD (467), N550JF (472), N300JZ (875) GIV N675RW (1046), N44CE (1125) 

 

24-10-2019 Okeechobee (FL)

GIII N194PA (464) 

 

24-10-2019 Boca Raton (FL)

GIV N394AK (1470) G450 N499SC (4135) 

 

24-10-2019 Fort Lauderdale - Executive (FL)

GIV N221EA (1476) 

 

24-10-2019 Opa Locka (FL)

GII YV569T (151) GIII YV3262 (422) N218EE (489) GIV N144AD (1065), N200LC (1067), N831XA (1078), N483DJ (1100), N720AD (1290), N352BH (1393) GV N127GG (534), N626JE (642) G450 N43XT (4009) G500 A7-CGP (72011) G550 N898AW (5019) N5SD (5033) 

 

24-10-2019 Tamiami (FL)

GII N222NP (245) 

 

24-10-2019 Miami International (FL)

GIV N232ZK (1522) GV N727PR (613)