During my time on Classic B747, we three arrived at the airplane about 60 minutes prior to push, and the flight planning info/paperwork was delivered to us just at/after arrival onboard.
The pilots had a mildly busy time, but the Flight Engineer, with all the Deferred Defects, MELs and refuelling to attend to, together with checking over the takeoff performance figures and completing the Maintenance Logbook to the point of getting the Captains signature, had to really 'keep the ball rolling' to get ready in time.
I will always be REALLY glad the 747s I operated had a professional FE aboard to attend to those tasks, especially when we were operating out of airports with no maintenance presence at all, he organized everything!
Worked well!
Cheers
