Freight DogsFinally a forum for those midnight prowler types who utilise the unglamorous parts of airports that many of us never get to see. Freight Dogs is for pilots and crew who operate mostly without SLF.
Yes, you're right - the 1800m figure was the First Officer operating limit and perhaps coincidentally close to the minimum LDA required.
However, I still remember IOM was out of bounds for the B737. If they have operated out of Ronaldsway maybe it was at a reduced TOW? I wouldn't like to comment whether the limitation was an operational one or simply due to economics.
Well it's been some time since I've been on these pages, but after flying these and this particular aircraft for many years. It is a sad sight to see this aircraft ending up this way. What a waste. Surely a museum would be more of a fitting end to preserve this, a British Aircraft. Perhaps airfields like Cosford ( albeit they have an Andover there already), Coventry where it flew into, Duxford to name a few.
It would have been nice to see the HS748 flying again. Maybe one day it will whether it's in the UK or elsewhere.
I think G-SOEI has engines fitted, so is the only one with any
chance of flying out. The hangar needs to be cleared out very
shortly in preparation for new owners, Disley Aviation, moving in.
G-SOEI 748 has now been cancelled from UK register and was doing engine tests today as N748D. Departure appears fairly imminent.
I remember the first appearance of the 748 at Blackpool when
Autair used G-ATMI and G-ATMJ to replace their Ambassadors on the Luton run in the late 1960s.
State of the art aircraft then. Sad to think we are unlikely to see them here again.
Sad I agree , but what a history , the Avroe 748 blazed a trail in the aviation history and provided many pilots with their first introduction in the real world of commercial aviation,lessons learned the hard way,without the benefit of flight simulators .
It is without doubt an aircraft that provided an ideal experience for many pilots who eventuallly went on to greater things and the airmanship and grounding of the HS748 were to give them the confidence to tackle the most demanding of situations on more modern aircraft.
There will be many former HS748 pilots who will look back on their early days conversion training and the effort and concentration that was demanded by their Training Captains,it was not easy and their mentors had to work them hard in order to prepare each new recruit to the exacting demands of what essentially was a night freight operation,when things went bang in the dark they took on a deeper dimension than on daylight operations.
This may well be the end of an era for the venerable "Budgie" however their are many of us who will say that it served us well,we relied on it through all weathers as we recognised that it was built of sterner stuff than many of its contemporaries and got us back to terra firma at the end of the night, sometimes more terra than firma !!
The HS748 will live on in the history of aviation for both former crews and all those involved. with the operation
For those of you who may be feeling a litle sad that the 748 has all but disappeared from operational service in the UK (but fingers crossed for the last two eh?), I have spent some considerable time scanning and uploading a few original British Aerospace 748 sales brochures from more optimistic times. There are some great technical drawings.
I have put them on Flickr, which if you are not familiar, is a Yahoo-owned photo sharing site. It might be nice for other people to add their Emerald photos too. I know there are lots of EA pics on Facebook, but if you're not a member of Facebook then you can't view them, so from that perspective Flickr is better for sharing.
I have more to add but have reached the monthly upload limit. Here's the links so far
G-SOEI
Linear Mode
