Originally Posted by
staircase
It was such fun when the engine did not start as a result of that bl**dy air valve.
Standing outside with something to hit the valve with, whilst the passengers watched, was always entertaining!
Yep! I well remember the Monarch 1-11’s pushing back at Luton, shortly followed by the warbling note that meant all was not well. An Engineer would generally walk out of Airline Engineering with an Aluminium step ladder and open the panel and all would return to normal. I was interested as to what was happening and rang AE to ask. They told me they hit the valve with a rubber headed hammer. But then, me being an ATC wallah, they could have told me anything and I’d have believed it…
Regarding long ranges flown by 1-11 variants. I flew as pax on a Laker aircraft from Manchester to the old Tunis/Carthage airport (DTTA) which I thought was a pretty good haul for a ‘short’ variant 1-11. The take-off run was pretty extensive!