Ah yes, DC3s, Gulf Aviation late 60's early 70's......
Alan Bodger, left hand seat, scheduled flight, taking off, cigar going, reminiscing about how he claimed the record on the Hump with 80 SOB in a Dakota....
The contract DC3 skipper we had occasionally, only type he'd ever flown in 35 years was the DC3, eyesight so bad he would aim off the the left when going to a desert strip and get the F/O to watch for the strip and call for a turn to the right when he saw it...then talk him down.
Starting an engine, right in front of the new glass-walled terminal at AUH, under the disbelieving gaze of the passengers, using a Landrover and length of rope when the starter motor failed; the prop hub, rather elongated like a protuberent nipple, was designed for this purpose, according to the engineer.......we believed it, anyway. It's funny how slowly passengers walk to get on board, sometimes. I imagine it's the same with people going to the scaffold.
Wondering, when I first joined, why the pilots put their macs
on when boarding, if cloud was forecast on route.
It was decided to try out the notion of paying someone - called a "steward" - to ride in the back with the passengers, for no good reason that anyone could see. The waiters from the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain were press-ganged into this work on their days off, and given a rudimentary course (one afternoon) on what they had to do. So during a transit at DXB one over-eager, wooden-headed Captain gave the Steward a little test.
"Hassan, imagine we've just taken off. We've managed to get over the town here, and we've just crossed the coast. Suddenly it all goes quiet, and you hear me shout 'Prepare to Ditch'. What do you do?"
Hassan, anxious to please, scratches his head, can't find an answer.
Captain presses him "Come on, say something....just taken off, no engines, I say 'Prepare to Ditch'.
Hassan brightens up; "I know, yes, after take off, serve orange juice".
Same steward; same Captain. On route Al Ayn to DXB, a route much favoured by the local ladies who went shopping in DXB. Al Ayn was a tiny village then. Captain notices, in the cruise, that it suddenly got more draughty than usual. Calls the Steward, asks if anything unusual down the back. Hassan says no. Eventually F/O is dispatched to have a look round and finds the overwing emergency exit has been opened next to a lady passenger; you'll remember that they hinged outwards at the bottom, with a simple handle at the top. F/O decides not to try and get it back but asks Hassan if he knew about it. Hassan says "of course, I opened it; she asked me to as she was feeling hot".
DC3 at Al Ayn...somewhere around 1970..it's a turnround on the service from/to DBX..sorry about quality
