Working in Traffic at Brisbane Airport it was not unusual for BA 747s to reach the end of the line with patches of fresh paint around the LHS doors. One day one of them rolled up still with the masking tape present. I think this was about this time that BA formed an "Aircraft Appearance Committee" apparently in an attempt to improve the appearance of the fleet although I was tempted to hope that it might facilitate the magical "appearance" of an aeroplane if the inbound aircraft was late.
I often wondered if Boeing regretted not providing a DV window on the flight deck because cleaning the windscreens required the use of a cherry picker. This reminds me of another BA flight that was significantly late arriving at BNE. We had all the return pax in the lounge ready to board as quickly as possible. The crew must have requested that the windscreens be cleaned because the station cherry picker was offered up to the aeroplane in full view of the boarding pax prompting one old dear to remark: "This flight is hours late and now they want to paint the plane!"
I was fortunate enough to be on the last Qantas 747 out of Brisbane on 15th July. Prior to departure I made it known to the tech crew that; "Mr Sutter will be flying with us today." He was with us if only in the form of his signature on my treasured copy of his book. Here is F/O Peter Ferguson with Joe Sutter's book on the flight deck of VH-OEJ:
