Thanks Tidbinbilla......a timely intervention
I can still remember as a very yound F27 F/O sitting on the jumpseat of a -9 in 1970 going in to HBA. The skipper had that lovely Collins autopilot plugged in and he left the rudimentary auto-throttle in (a great device but not really designed for approach). It sat at something like 1.3 vs....anyway, there we were on track on slope on speed, auto-spoilers armed.....and no hands! If needed it would get you to the end of the RW all by itself. Absolute magic. Nowadays....barely raise an eyebrow but the -9 was so far ahead of its time then its hard to remember now.
Another name just sprang to mind.....had some great times with him. Barry Prince.....now sadly gone. A great aviator and fun in the cockpit. He did the walk around one day and collided with the dreaded RAT probe (part of the RAT/EPR gauge system....that was a handful to learn). Barry turned up in the cockpit, stunned and bleeding, no doubt concussed.....saying "she'll be right, get me a band-aid". Sanity prevailed however and he was led off in a daze and I think Alex Johnstone stepped in and took over the left seat job.
Barry made a speech to our crew at a little party in the Perth Sheraton on my last layover as a 727 F/O before starting my DC-9 command training. It went something like (Barry enjoyed a lot of beer) ...."well you're now completely useless as an F/O so you'll no doubt make a good captain!"
Long sigh........