P.P.
I converted on to the Viscount 700/800 at Ansett ANA in oct of 1963 and flew them until march of 67. None of the a/c had the slipper tanks fitted however at some stage earlier they had been used. I know not how many and for how long they were used. My guess is it was not for long.
They apparently were tried out for the Adelaide- Perth route. I heard about this when I was studying ATPL Flight Planning. Our lecturer was Bill Kennedy who was the Navigation Officer for Ansett. I remember the discussion at one of the lectures and Bill told us that the Slipper Tanks had been tried out as at that time the ADL-Per route was the longest Viscount route in the world. Apparently they only gave about 15 mins extra endurance and the extra drag especially mounted behind the outer props virtually cancelled any benefit out.
I operated the route many times and standard fuel was full tanks in an 800 . We were only cleared to abeam Kalgoorlie and if we had not consumed our 10% variable reserve we had just enough fuel to legally continue to PER. If not a fuel stop would have to be made in KAL to top up.
Needless to say that any WX req on PER made it necessary to plan via KAL. ON one occasion due to strong headwinds and an ALT on PER it was neccessary to pick up fuel in Forrest ( middle of the Nullabour Plain) and then again in KAL. That was a long tour of duty.
It was said the Viscount F/O had the highest workload of any A/c we operated and I certainly agreed with that. It was not easy operatng in Australias climate in summer as the aircon was designed for Northern European climate, the pressurisation suffered from the Outflow valve clogging up with nicotine and the door seals frquently letting go at low cabin differential
Emeritus
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