This thread has drifted slightly off-topic; I’m amazed nobody has seen fit to mention two distinct and unique features of Ansett’s F.27’s.
The initial Ansett F.27–200’s (VH-FNA to, I think, FNL) were fitted with the Sperry AL30J pneumatic autopilot. Its patent unsuitability was obvious; this was allegedly fitted because at the time Ansett were the Sperry agents in Australia! To use this, you had to ensure that your coffee cup was empty, your full harness was tight, all of the indicator indices were aligned, quietly review the “recovery from unusual attitudes” procedure, take a deep breath and engage – for very good reason this was known as “the hijack box”! Eventually sanity prevailed; all the -400’s and -500’s, plus the -200’s acquired from both MMA and All Nippon had the excellent Smiths SEP2 (electric) autopilot.
Apparently someone in Ansett Engineering had a love affair with pneumatics as the F.27 was also cursed with the Walter Kidde Nose Wheel Steering System. It was readily apparent that it lacked both feel (I always suspected an elastic band hidden somewhere in the linkage) and authority; a small movement of the steering wheel produced no apparent result; an infinitesimal further movement produced a huge lurch as the nosewheel promptly turned through a large angle! Even worse was the lack of any mechanical stop at the end of the steering range. The danger here was during a tight turn the noseweel would castor and reverse itself – you were then well and truly stuck! Allegedly in the cause of standardization, but due more I suspect to a sense of bloody-mindedness and making life hard for the pilots, Engineering persevered with this woefully inadequate NWS for all Ansett F.27’s. When the six F.27-500’s (VH-FCA to FCD) were ordered, Fokker initially declined to fit these units as they were no longer in production. Not to be outdone, engineering scoured the world’s rubbish tips, airline’s long-forgotten stores shelving and museums of torture instruments to locate six second-hand examples, which ended up in the “new” Friendships…
But Fokker’s “Mighty Mouse” certainly was a character-building aircraft. I have some 4500 hours on type (in fact the most of any type I’ve flown) and in all honesty I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.