Only flew it as an F/O and you worked like a drovers dog. The 700 series always seemed to have pressurisation problems and Visc f/o's became very proficient at manuallly controlling the pressurisation.
Yes the view out the pax windows was as good as the cockpit was bad. Two of our a/c had the barred side windows and was no place to be if one was claustrophobic !!
The a/conditioning system was unable to cope during summer in the outback where it was not uncommon to have ISA +30. Under those conditions with a reasonable load you would be lucky to reach FL150.
Many's the time the air con would not go into refrigerate for the first hour to hour n half of the trip and because the pax had all the eyeball vents open the was no air for the drivers. I recall one day holding my cigarette up to the vent and the smoke drifted into the vent!!
There is no doubt the a/c had passenger appeal and was a good choice for the Airlines but it was a poor envionment to work in.
Re the 146...don't recall it was disliked by those who flew it. There were some initial teething troubles as I recall mainly because it was req to operate at a higher level due to stage lengths and also a lot of engine problems initially.
Emeritus
