The way we were - Ansett, TAA, Qantas
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I still remember as a kid moving to FNQ in the 70's. Family friend was an AN Captain, who shift swapped for the day so he could fly us north for our big move. All four of our family got a jump seat on his 727 that day, aircraft went BNE/TSV/CNS, I got the take-off out of TSV. It was the moment that aviation entered my blood stream. After that, even as a kid, ol mate Captain would box up and send me old flight manuals, books, old exams, the lot! Buggered if I knew what an 8 year old was going to learn, but I would thumb through the spines for hours and hours. On reflection I still remember learning new words such as airfoil, bogey and slats. I never ever forgot that!
A priceless experience, life changing to be totally honest, but an experience that could never be had today.
Sadly I have become a disgruntled ol bastard, having ridden the aviation roller coaster of ups and downs, but this thread along with some relived childhood memories has lightened my heart and mood (even if temporary) and reminded me of some great great times indeed
A priceless experience, life changing to be totally honest, but an experience that could never be had today.
Sadly I have become a disgruntled ol bastard, having ridden the aviation roller coaster of ups and downs, but this thread along with some relived childhood memories has lightened my heart and mood (even if temporary) and reminded me of some great great times indeed
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Devonport Tasmania Australia
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Hugh - that is a classic ad.
At the time it was well before TAARSAN with TN and must have referred to an offline system I have never heard of for seat allocation.
The airport dudes then had a landline connection to Franklin St and the seat numbers were allocated from there. I can only assume LOCO was undertaken at the city location as well.
The res room was cavernous even when I joined in 75 as it held a 3 strorey high status board then.
TN came back against that ad with "We have "Susan Jones and ......" then reeled of the names of all the other F/As in employ.
the more you all load, the more comes back!!
Love it.
Best all
EWL
At the time it was well before TAARSAN with TN and must have referred to an offline system I have never heard of for seat allocation.
The airport dudes then had a landline connection to Franklin St and the seat numbers were allocated from there. I can only assume LOCO was undertaken at the city location as well.
The res room was cavernous even when I joined in 75 as it held a 3 strorey high status board then.
TN came back against that ad with "We have "Susan Jones and ......" then reeled of the names of all the other F/As in employ.
the more you all load, the more comes back!!
Love it.
Best all
EWL
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Even better
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2_g4hh8sKM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2_g4hh8sKM
Join Date: Mar 2005
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727 Fin Art
Can anyone remember the TAA 727 that had an outline of a guy with the background of, now, Uluru on the fin? I was a LAME with Tatars at the time and remember a bit of a kufufal when some joker adorned the image of the bloke with a toggle and two! What a hoot!
short flights long nights
Flying with Greybeard was the most enjoyable time of my life. I wish he would stop posting this stuff...it brings tears to my eyes, remembering how good it was, and how those that are flying now, will never ever know what the proper Australian airline aviation scene was like. Today is just a cluster f
k
k
TAARSAN & LOCO
Eastwest Loco...I well remember the Res board in Franklin St (I've still got the pictures I took of the board), it's where I started with TAA. I'd just arrived after working res in BOAC (as it was then), so to go back from computer to manual res was a real shock.
I also remember doing the seat allocation as well, the only problem I had was with MEL-PER Pax due to the change of aircraft at ADL. Must have given the guys at Tullamarine a few problems with families that were seated together as far as ADL but were one seat short on the next leg to PER.
Great days, great staff.
I also remember doing the seat allocation as well, the only problem I had was with MEL-PER Pax due to the change of aircraft at ADL. Must have given the guys at Tullamarine a few problems with families that were seated together as far as ADL but were one seat short on the next leg to PER.
Great days, great staff.
Join Date: Apr 2009
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Thanks for the great memories guys, this old bird (taken from my old Kodac instamatic) which was my first flight with Qantas, The Captain for this flight was Aden Wickes, an absolute gentleman, along with all his crew. Great days.. loved the old DC4..
my favourite old commercial was this old gem, great in its day..
short flights long nights
Ok, I am going to ask, how did the reservation board work? I would love to know. This could turn into one of the best threads ever!
TAA Res Board Franklin St
SOPPS, That's really testing my grey matter now, but IF I remeb.mber correctly the board was read left to right for dates of travel and down for timings/flt nos/dest.
That days details on the very left hand columns followed by tomorrows on the right etc until it went to periods of (I think) weekly and onwards.
Each flight segment had a coloured system (of which I can't remember exactly) on the basis of if that flight segment was available to sell immediately on the phone it was say GREEN or you had to take a request and then check it was say YELLOW and if flight was full it was say RED. There were many other variations such as circles, obliques, squares etc which gave further details that you had to take into account. Whilst taking a telephone call, you wrote all the details down on a card and that was sent along a belt to an operator who punch typed over what you had written. If you could only request a seat the confirmation (or otherwise) would be advised back to you fairly quickly. You couldn't cheat by trying to sell a seat on a segment that had none available as whoever controlled the system knew exactly when the board was changed and therefore based on when they received the puched card they knew if you were trying to pull a fast one.
I'll see if I can work out how to post a couple of pictures of the board and you'll see just how massive it was. Paul
That days details on the very left hand columns followed by tomorrows on the right etc until it went to periods of (I think) weekly and onwards.
Each flight segment had a coloured system (of which I can't remember exactly) on the basis of if that flight segment was available to sell immediately on the phone it was say GREEN or you had to take a request and then check it was say YELLOW and if flight was full it was say RED. There were many other variations such as circles, obliques, squares etc which gave further details that you had to take into account. Whilst taking a telephone call, you wrote all the details down on a card and that was sent along a belt to an operator who punch typed over what you had written. If you could only request a seat the confirmation (or otherwise) would be advised back to you fairly quickly. You couldn't cheat by trying to sell a seat on a segment that had none available as whoever controlled the system knew exactly when the board was changed and therefore based on when they received the puched card they knew if you were trying to pull a fast one.
I'll see if I can work out how to post a couple of pictures of the board and you'll see just how massive it was. Paul
TAA Res Board pictures
It appears that the pictures need to be on one of the various web sites for that purpose. To make it easier for me, anyone who'd like to see the pictures can e-mail me on pppdrive(@)talktalk.net obviously without the brackets, and I'll e-mail them to you.. Paul
short flights long nights
For some strange reason, this has me interested, I will email you
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: canberra
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Well I don't know how it worked for the jets but (circa 1960s) for the Fokkers a port "controlled" a flight. For example if it was a western Qld flight which called at Roma , Roma controlled it; if it didn't Charleville would control the flight. If it extended to Longreach, Longreach would. In the applicable TAA office was an A4 sheet of cardboard with the numbered seats on it with each port on the flight allocated a certain number of seats If someone rang or came into the office and wanted a seat, their name would go on the seat on the card if the port allocation wasn't exceeded. If it was, the agent would then ring or more likely teletype the controlling port to release a seat.
If say someone in Sydney wanted a seat for a passenger Longreach to Charleville, they would telex Longreach (the controlling port) with pax name with an "NN" meaning need a seat. The agent in LRE would check the card and then acquire the seat.and then send a return telex to "HK" ie confirm the seat. If the flight was full the telex would read "HN" meaning waitlisted. (I think the codes are correct. It was along time ago.)
The actual weight and balance and the load planning in terms of what goes where was done by the first officer on a sector by sector basis.
If say someone in Sydney wanted a seat for a passenger Longreach to Charleville, they would telex Longreach (the controlling port) with pax name with an "NN" meaning need a seat. The agent in LRE would check the card and then acquire the seat.and then send a return telex to "HK" ie confirm the seat. If the flight was full the telex would read "HN" meaning waitlisted. (I think the codes are correct. It was along time ago.)
The actual weight and balance and the load planning in terms of what goes where was done by the first officer on a sector by sector basis.
Clotted, I think you're right in saying the Qld Country Routes were not controlled from HO Res. My memory is fading but I seem to recall that they were treated the same as non-TAA 3rd level flights. If we recived a phone booking for any airline/route that was not controlled by us, we would either ring (sometimes telex) the nearest main TAA Office (Brisbane for the services you mention), they would then make the booking in their system (or make it with the respective airline or TAA Port responsible and let us know.
My memory recalls NN (need) requesting seats, the reply of KK (confirmed by respective Res office). Once we got a KK response we would then change our records to HK (holding confirmed). Waitlist I think was either WL or LL) and responses would be KL/HL. To confuse matters more, there were priority systems plus Freesale (FS) bookings that had to be confirmed even if no seats available. These FS were usually from International carriers as part of an International journey.
I can also remember that if we had to book someone on an Ansett controlled flight, we'd just ring them up (only a few doors away in Franklin St) and always found them to be just as friendly and helpful as we were. There did not appear to be any friction between the two sets of staff and in fact we often socialised with them out of hours.
My memory recalls NN (need) requesting seats, the reply of KK (confirmed by respective Res office). Once we got a KK response we would then change our records to HK (holding confirmed). Waitlist I think was either WL or LL) and responses would be KL/HL. To confuse matters more, there were priority systems plus Freesale (FS) bookings that had to be confirmed even if no seats available. These FS were usually from International carriers as part of an International journey.
I can also remember that if we had to book someone on an Ansett controlled flight, we'd just ring them up (only a few doors away in Franklin St) and always found them to be just as friendly and helpful as we were. There did not appear to be any friction between the two sets of staff and in fact we often socialised with them out of hours.
Ground staff SYD would well remember the QF3/4 weekends in NAN.
Straight to the airport after work on Friday.
Ex NAN around 05:00 on Monday and straight into work.
Great times and memories.
There was also an Air Pacific captain who would front up to the staff check-in at SYD and ask how the loadings were and say, you can use the jump seat if you want. True, I flew SYD-NAN in the seat and the QF 2nd officer on board (I think because they, the air planes were Qantas ? ) invited me to the Tanoa Hotel for a drink. Great night with plenty of QF crew there from the QF3/4 on their stop overs on way to HNL or SYD.
Great memories.
Straight to the airport after work on Friday.
Ex NAN around 05:00 on Monday and straight into work.
Great times and memories.
There was also an Air Pacific captain who would front up to the staff check-in at SYD and ask how the loadings were and say, you can use the jump seat if you want. True, I flew SYD-NAN in the seat and the QF 2nd officer on board (I think because they, the air planes were Qantas ? ) invited me to the Tanoa Hotel for a drink. Great night with plenty of QF crew there from the QF3/4 on their stop overs on way to HNL or SYD.
Great memories.
It will be 40 years ago in September 2014 when the last real flying boat took off for Lord Howe.
I remember my father, one of the Captains, taking me out to Rose Bay. As a young pilot just starting out they were ENORMOUS.
I can remember being introduced to a red haired lady and her husband who were buying both aircraft.
The gentleman was Captain Charles Blair, one of the early pioneer captains with Pan Am, and his wife was Maureen O'hara the actress.
Funnily enough I am going for coffee to the old flying boat base today.
I remember my father, one of the Captains, taking me out to Rose Bay. As a young pilot just starting out they were ENORMOUS.
I can remember being introduced to a red haired lady and her husband who were buying both aircraft.
The gentleman was Captain Charles Blair, one of the early pioneer captains with Pan Am, and his wife was Maureen O'hara the actress.
Funnily enough I am going for coffee to the old flying boat base today.
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Devonport Tasmania Australia
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Nkosi
I think it was TBH that was in the Central Australian livery however I think you will find the "genetalia" appeared on DC9-30 TJL.
TJL was on the TN555/556 circuit from MEL to PER up over the top and via everywhere when it cacked itself in PHE and was on the ground an extended time due to Engineering sending turbine that was also U/S out on an F27.
While they waited for the 2nd replacement boredom obviously set in.
Funny thing is it wasn't picked up by management for a week!!
Best all
EWL
I think it was TBH that was in the Central Australian livery however I think you will find the "genetalia" appeared on DC9-30 TJL.
TJL was on the TN555/556 circuit from MEL to PER up over the top and via everywhere when it cacked itself in PHE and was on the ground an extended time due to Engineering sending turbine that was also U/S out on an F27.
While they waited for the 2nd replacement boredom obviously set in.
Funny thing is it wasn't picked up by management for a week!!
Best all
EWL
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Australia
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VH-TBK was painted in the 'Central Australia' colours, photos of it can be found here;
VH-TBK Boeing 727
TAA also had a DC9 VH-TJL painted in the 'Coral Islander', photos can be found here;
VH-TJL Douglas DC-9
For those wanting to see more photos of aircraft from the good old days, check out;
aussieairliners.net
VH-TBK Boeing 727
TAA also had a DC9 VH-TJL painted in the 'Coral Islander', photos can be found here;
VH-TJL Douglas DC-9
For those wanting to see more photos of aircraft from the good old days, check out;
aussieairliners.net