Calling all former/current Bandit Drivers

[haughtney1]

Ok time for a bit of fun......
Lets hear your war stories regarding this old tub:ok: ..me I loved flying it, easy to fly..hard to cock up the fuel management..6lbs a minute from memory with the high tech fuel totaliser/chicken timer:} Oh and many a (shouted..in the cruise) discussion about why the hell Embraer ever though a gear collapse switch was a good idea:E
Come on guys over to you....

[Chimbu chuckles]

What a mighty bus was the Bandit.

I remember departing Rabaul back in 94 about 5 minutes after one of the junior pilots departed in a company Islander...and we were departing in the same direction:E I stayed down at the level he was cruising at and spotted him eventually...at MCT I had an overtaking speed of about 90kts and after a "passing on your right" call I whistled passed about 'two':ok: wings spans abeam:}

NOT 10 seconds later the, very cute but incredibly dumb, FA arrives in the cockpit..Capt Chuck, how did he do that?....Ummm do what:confused: Make that Islander fly backwards:ugh: :{ :}

Or some years earlier when Talair shut down, and we'd all been handed redundancy, and we were ferrying aeroplanes up to Goroka...arrived in a bit of a swarm and preceeded to beat the living daylights out of the airport...there is a picture somewhere of a bandit standing 'on it's tail' going up over the trees at the uphill end of the airport:E

The deputy CP was watching all this with horror and preceeded to do his nut after everyone shut down..."so sack us":}

[haughtney1]

Nice one Chimbu;)

[chimbu warrior]

Haughtney you might want to carry a bit more fuel if you are going a long way............they burnt 10lb/minute when I flew them.

Unfortunately used to get pretty hot in the cockpit in PNG, even with airconditioning on.

Not a bad old bus, and as I'm sure Chuck will agree, that gear override was a handy feature (although never used as far as I know) when going out of Chimbu with a substantial load. RTO above about 40 knots would have seen you splattered all over the valley floor about 1500 feet below without that switch.

[haughtney1]

6lbs a minute from memory with the high tech fuel totaliser/chicken timer

I should have added per engine to that:uhoh: and dont worry Mr warrior I havent flown one in about 8 yrs!

[nuku-rangi]

Since this is about the trusty old Bandit....Has anone flown one with a V-Tail (elevator)? If so any noticeable difference?

[G.A. Boy]

Most wonderful old bird. Bit scarey out of Tari or Hagen fully laden as I remember. Bulletproof systems, big roomy cockpit, loved every hour on them. Never flew the V tail ones though.

[Torres]

Ask Pants Parker. He tried a few fancy tricks early one morning at Port Morbid in Ser No 300 (think it only had around 300 hours on it). The Bandit didn't survive, but Pants Parker did.

A few quotations from that incident:

6.00 am phone call from GHOC: "Max just burnt a Bandit!"
"God, if he didn't get out it'll take a week to put the fire out!"

9.00 am: "Shags, why did you let him go in that condition?"
"Seen him fly in worse condition!"

Next Day Junior: "Can't drown the b@stard. Can't burn the b@stard. Gotta sack the b@stard!"

From memory our first Bandit, P2-RDN arrived November 1975. Eventually had eleven from memory.

Ooooh! The stories I could tell.

Trader Booth's "in-flight shopping"! (One memorable Daru - POM flight "Here Torres, you drive, I have to go back and open the in-flight store"!)

Dangerous Dave: 27 POB Namatanai - Rabaul. Topped it the next week with around 15 POB in a C402!

Great machine. Totally made the company!!! :} :} :}

[chimbu warrior]

Torres yu lusim tingting o wanem?

It was actually 42 POB in the Bandit that caught Dangerous Dave out.

27 was like a regular load, especially with a few piccaninnies in bilums.

[Torres]

Mi no lusim tingting!!! Mi gat save! :}

You know and I know it was over 40 POB - but no one here is going to believe that! Max Bandit load was always 24 in seats, 16 in the center isle and two in the luggage bay.

Same as they won't believe 20 in a C402; 9 (including kids, Junior and yours truly) in a Baron POM/GKA; and 9 in a C185 (Minj - GKA), including one in the Pod!

Still doesnt compare to 123 Highland labourers on the floor of a DC3, Madang - Goroka!

[Animalclub]

Crikey... I thought we were doing well with mumble mumble on a DC3 with Captain Guria!!! You beat me!

[Capt Fathom]

From memory our first Bandit, P2-RDN arrived November 1975. November '78. Flown out with the help of Ian Leslie. (Not that long ago really!!! :ugh:)
Didn't Talair have the first ones in Australasia?

[Torres]

Capt Fathom. You may be correct on the date but not quite correct on the details.

Jack Masling had the first Bandits in Australia and also the Australian Embraer Agency, managed by Jack's son, John (who later died when a helicopter ran into power lines.)

We talked about the Bandit - it looked very suitable for the Talair operation. Junior went to Wagga for a ride on Jack's Bandit then both Junior and Jack went to Brasil where Dennis ordered the first two, a P1 and a P2 which later became P2-RDN and P2-RDM.

The first Bandits cost around US$550,000 each, 10% down and the balance on the "never-never" with the Banco de Brasil at something like 2% interest. The debt was secured by personal guarantees by non share holding Directors - who didn't get caught the second time around! :)

Both aircraft were flown from Basil to Oakland, ferry tanks fitted and ferried to PNG by Southern Cross Aviation. Ian wasn't involved - indeed whilst I can't recall the M@cair take over date (1979?) I am sure it was after the first bandit arrived, thus Ian would have been working for M@cair at that time. The reason I am sure the Bandits arrived before the M@cair take over was that it was our twice daily Lae - Goroka - Hagen Bandit service which sealed M@cair's fate - and also the fate of the twice weekly PX service.

I think the Chief Pilot at the time would have been either Mike or Wally.

Apart from McChook ferrying Twotter VH-GKR (later P2-RDB) in 1972, most if not all Talair ferry flights from the States were carried out by Aussie owned, California based Southern Cross Aviation.

Conversely, all Flight West aircraft were ferried by company pilots with the exception of the King Air Dennis bought, RP-C200 which became VH-SKC and was ferried by Filipino pilots.

Animal. The 123 labourers in a DC3 was related to me by RHG and occurred in the 1950's. He suggested his Ju52-3m's would carry more but I don't know whether he ever did.

[chimbu warrior]

Yep............Torres has lost it (his memory that is).

****** takeover was in 1975.

P2-RDN arrived 1978. P2-RDM arrived 1979. Both were P2's (i.e. no cargo door).

Ian Leslie was the Chief Pilot at the time..........Mike had recently gone to PX. Wally was much later.......after Waddles, who had succeded ouyr friend now in WA.

Jack Masling's son was Tony, but he did not manage Jakair. The manager of that company is now the principalof Aeromil.

Methinks too many SP's in your past old fella!

[tinpis]

On a holiday trip to PNG in 83 the Bandit weather radar qualities were demonstrated to me by the cowboy booted one.
Mapping the Wahgi valley floor in IMC on a GA-HGN flight. :eek:

[star*pattern*enter]

Nooky-Rangi

P1 model with slab elevator has a lot of feedback through controls on high speed descent- quite rough!

P2 with dihedral can be hammered all the way down to circuit-smooth as!

**

[nuku-rangi]

star*pattern*enter

Used to fly a P1 with the dihedral and it was as you said...."smooth as". Very light in the controls compared to the straight tail P1's flown. Interestingly enough, the straight tail Bandits had electric elevator trim but the V tail one didn't...not that it needed it.

A great work horse with reliable PT6 engines. A pleasure to fly.......:)

[Mr.Buzzy]

Agreed great fun to fly! Just wish they did something about that crazy Feather / Unfeather taxiing mess!

bbbbbbbbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzbbbbbbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[nuku-rangi]

Mr.Buzzy

Did you have to feather/unfeather the props during taxi cause you were using the air con hence having the engines in hi idle?

We never used the a/c on the ground so never had to deal with that problem. It did get abit warm in summer but once we got airborne on came the a/c and bought the temp down a wee bit. Downside is we were usually T5 limited going thru 7-8000' so we had to turn them off again to get to TOC.

[jetstar21]

Just a little update for those who are obviously interested in the introduction of the bandit.

John Grimley, the chief pilot of Masling and also jackair at the time Jack Masling secured the distributorship from Embraer ferried the first Bandit to leave South America. Due to things running late at the factory, the route was changed to get the aircraft to Australia by te 30th June, 1978 and the only way was to forget the nice USA and Pacific route and go via Chile, Easter Island, Tahiti, Western Samoa, Fiji and Brisbane.

The aircraft arrived in Brisbane at 10.30pm on the 30th June, 1978 and was subsequently registered VH-MWU. It was a P2 as were all Masling Bandits.

The first delivery of a Bandit to PNG was done by Wayne Grimley (son of John) who was ferrying for Southern Cross at the time. Time moves on and Wayne is a 777 Captain with Vietnam Airlines and John is with Sunstate.

Tony Masling did run Jackair for a short period prior to Steve Pagett taking over.

I won't elaborate further here but hope some gaps have been filled in for those interested.

[centurionII]

Had the privilege of flying right seat with G.A Boy a few times doing Bathurst runs in the ol girl up in DN. Very professional mate, a pleasure to fly with you.