Teresa reminds Sherm of how the -9 had one flaw....it destroyed the concept of the liesurely meal for a long time. On a MEL-SYD sector, if everything went well (and while answering the radio, making position reports, running ground speed checks etc) you had about 5 minutes to eat. For many years later even when taking Mrs Sherm to the Florentino, it was difficult while delicately slicing the chateubriand not to be thinking "Gee, Top of Descent coming up soon, better get the ATIS, call the company, set up the pressurization, get out the approach plates, calculate the exact TOD". Gobble gobble gobble. Does rather take the sting out of a romantic evening. Fortunately Mrs Sherm was (and remains) forgiving.
And in the simulator, back in the days of the "lollypop" yellow cabin outflow valve control.....you'd just know, approaching TOD, that you'd get a Left AC bus failure with AC X-tie lockout and at that time the pressurization didn't auto X-tie it's AC source. So you were straight into the AC failure checklist (remember that laminated folder we had?) while managing that absolute mongrel of an outflow valve trying to avoid blood loss from the ears, and managing all other aspects of the descent. Fun?
As for Ken Collins...a very young Sherm , his one gold stripe as yet unused was driven by his dad (who'd flown with Ken) down to AFAP HQ at Albert Road in 1970, where with great solemnity Ken and one other (maybe Max Laurie) very very senior B727 Captains and AFAP trustees accepted the young Sherm's application to join the AFAP. That was followed by a celebratory drink in the president's office.
That was in the days when the President of the AFAP could get the PM on the phone....where DCA would always involve the VP-Technical in anything technical or safety, and where even the Senior Regional Captain at the induction day reminded young pilots of their obligations to support the union and add to it.
We have lost Collins and his peers...(though not their spirit as EWL reminds us)....and we have lost much else that they built. The "me first" attitdue to unions and careers was not what they were on about.
But Sherm digresses.....yesterday was given an old "Aircraft" magazine, 1968, with that great ad showing Reg "Ike" Eisenhauer...(sigh)....was shown in uniform walking away from the 727 simulator and its travails. Reg showed me the DC-9 for the first time......it was a remains the coolest machine built and to see the dream of commanding one come true was a very great event in Sherm's life. The beloved MD-80 which kept Sherm safe for years in very unlovely worlds and kept Sherm's family in baked beans was simply an enhanced -9. They sure got that design right.