As you part of No.34 Squadron what was your experience of operating the Viscount? Most of the RPT guys from Ansett-ANA and TAA , that operated the type, related that the Cockpit layout was an ergonomic nightmare and the workload was pretty high.
The two RAAF Viscounts were beautifully furnished as befit a VIP transport. Pot plants were placed strategically around the cabin. One of the Viscounts had been used to fly the Shah of Persia so you can imagine the lush furnishings. Describing the cockpit as an ergonomic nightmare was spot on but we got used to it. The view out of the cockpit was not that good either. The real winner was the undercarriage design that meant touch downs were usually soft. The controls were heavy but then again we weren't doing steep turns all the time. Stalls were gentle. In short it was a lovely aircraft to fly. It flew well on three engines but needed to be handled carefully if on two engines. Rudder stalling or "tramping" could occur if full rudder was used on two engines. We didn't find the cockpit work load anything unusual despite the plethora of switches.
Squadron crews were sent to Ansett at Essendon in Melbourne for the engineering course which was one month. The Ansett ground instructors were first class and I learned more about aircraft performance on the Viscount performance course run by Roger Gabriel than all my years in the RAAF where we were usually given a booklet called Pilots Notes for type then go away and fly the aeroplane next day. That is not to criticize the RAAF because that was the way things were both in wartime and peacetime.
The Dart engine lecturer at Ansett was Ray Lancaster. His knowledge and lecture technique was the best I had seen and all done with a marvellous sense of humour. The flying conversion was conducted by RAAF QFI's at Canberra. Squadron Leader John Radford did my Viscount endorsement. He was a fine instructor as was Squadron Leader Barry Gration who later became Chief of the Air Staff RAAF.
There was a RAAF directive that we had to fly 150 hours on type before carrying VIP's so we burned a few air miles doing that.
Last edited by Centaurus; 1st Nov 2020 at 13:32.