For those who might be interested, I saw him last week, still full of the usual confidence. Still in the same old job. Seems that they still need him. He hasn't seen any changes since the formal establishment of the Air Accident Commission tho...
Great to read that her is still 'Captain Courageous' and full of beans, enthusiasm and whatever, but what I'd like to hear is that K4.5mil has been put in the coffers as promised some time ago.
Has the dear chap investigated the last two prangs? one a fatal chopper and the other up at kilifas gap?
I am sure you PNG types already know, but if not, Frank "The Health Inspector" died recently of cancer. I attended his wake in Sept. He was famous for getting a few under his belt and then donning a white chemist coat and shutting down resturants by posing as a health inspector, complete with company ID card! A real character and a personal friend. We seem to be minus the wags these days. I also remember when he was locked up in the 'can' in Darwin, together with the Capt and FE after a very exciting night at the Casino back in the 727 days. A young lass complained about being bitten on the bottom from somebody under the dinner table!! The flight was delayed by 8 hours. Ah the good old days. Now its all powder blue instrument panels, sidesticks and Navbags on wheels.
Yes. He was a real character as I said before, and below I copy a 'Quote' for you amusement, received recently from a couple of other characters.
The good ol’ days.
Subject: Aaah....The real world of flying.......!!!
Quote:
Those were the good ole days. Pilots back then were men that didn't want to be women or girlymen. Pilots all knew who Jimmy Doolittle was. Pilots drank coffee, whiskey, smoked cigars and didn't wear digital watches.
They carried their own suitcases and brain bags like the real men that they were. Pilots didn't bend over into the crash position multiple times each day in front of the passengers at security so that some Gov't agent could probe for tweezers or fingernail clippers or too much toothpaste.
Pilots did not go through the terminal impersonating a caddy pulling a bunch of golf clubs, computers, guitars, and feed bags full of tofu and granola on a sissy-trailer with no hat and granny glasses hanging on a pink string around their pencil neck while talking to their personal trainer on the cell phone!!!
Being an Airline Captain was as good as being the King in a Mel Brooks movie. All the Stewardesses (aka.Flight Attendants) were young, attractive, single women that were proud to be combatants in the sexual revolution. They didn't have to turn sideways, grease up and suck it in to get through the cockpit door. They would blush and say thank you when told that they looked good, instead of filing a sexual harassment claim. Junior Stewardesses shared a room and talked about men.... with no thoughts of substitution.
Passengers wore nice clothes and were polite, they could speak AND understand English. They didn't speak gibberish or listen to loud gangsta rap on their IPods. They bathed and didn't smell like a rotting pile of garbage in a jogging suit and flip-flops. Children didn't travel alone, commuting between trailer parks. There were no mongol hordes asking for a "mu-fuggin" seatbelt extension or a Scotch and grapefruit juice cocktail with a twist.
If the Captain wanted to throw some offensive, ranting jerk off the airplane, it was done without any worries of a lawsuit or getting fired.
Axial flow engines crackled with the sound of freedom and left an impressive black smoke trail like a locomotive burning soft coal. Jet fuel was cheap and once the throttles were pushed up they were left there, after all it was the jet age and the idea was to go fast (run like a lizard on a hardwood floor). Economy cruise was something in the performance book, but no one knew why or where it was. When the clacker went off no one got all tight and scared because Boeing built it out of iron, nothing was going to fall off and that sound had the same effect on real pilots then as Viagra does now for those new age guys.
There was very little plastic and no composites on the airplanes or the Stewardesses' pectoral regions. Airplanes and women had eye pleasing symetrical curves, not a bunch of ugly vortex generators, ventral fins, winglets, flow diverters, tatoos, rings in their nose, tongu es and eyebrows.
Airlines were run by men like C.R. Smith and Juan Trippe who had built their companies virtually from scratch, knew many of their employees by name and were lifetime airline employees themselves...not pseudo financiers and bean counters who flit from one occupation to another for a few bucks, a better parachute or a fancier title while fervently believing that they are a class of beings unto themselves.
And so it was back then....and never will be again.
________________________________________
Yes! as peter sharpe remembers the fantastic sound of a couple of 1830's, or the shrill whine of the darts. Yes, even the lads before us, those who WE respected who when all said and done, at the end of the day made you feel proud to be a part, even a small part of the airline. There was character, honesty, men of their word, people you were proud to be associated with, a uniform you were proud to wear(maybe even to bed) and as Ernst Gann wrote, "a Band of Brothers".
Mr Sharpie, Thank you and so true. Maybe Fred V knew it was comming and indeed went into outer space to escape. I still love the job though and have 3 years to run before the old mens home come to take me away.
It occured between mid 92 and mid 93 in Port Moresby when I was working down the apron at the GA ramp. I think Oct or Nov 92. Have a photo but no better than the ones posted. Apparantly the Dash was under tow with a 'trained person' in the Flight Deck. The tow became disconnected for some reason at which point 'Trained person' had his moment of glory to apply the brakes and bring the affair to a halt on the sloping apron. Instead both training and the person headed out the window (literally) and the Dash was left to the forces of gravity and the drain. There was substantial damage due twisting of the wing, fuse and engine nacelle. We assume the one who abandoned ship skipped Tea and Biccies and fled straight back to the Jungle!
Last edited by saabsforever : 4th November 2008 at 20:27.
Reason: Add place of incident
DH7 P2-ANP. They never had any brake pressure in the system when they towed it. When one of the "trained experts" decided it was time to disconect the toe bar,it was found that the toe pin was jammed,so the expert decided to get a hammer and knock the pin out . After the pin was hammered out the aircraft rolled down the slope and ended up it the drain.
Hi Linedriver - just found this thread and your old post;
Quote:
Gents, I’m looking for anyone who was involved as a civilian pilot in the search for the RAAF Caribou that crashed in the Kudgeru Gap in New Guinea on 28 August 1972. If you were involved, or know someone who was, I’d appreciate you contacting me by PM.
Sid O'Toole
There was substantial damage due twisting of the wing, fuse and engine nacelle. We assume the one who abandoned ship skipped Tea and Biccies and fled straight back to the Jungle!
. After the pin was hammered out the aircraft rolled down the slope and ended up it the drain.
