Full shipload of Barbie dolls from KUL to the US (can't remember where exactly) in 1995 on a Fedex (ex FT) B74SF.
Charter was from the Mattel (they have a factory near KUL) for the Christmas season.
On the day of the flight (departure around 2200local), the freight company AEI (now absorbed into DHL-Danzas-Deutschpost etc) had only 5 guys doing the palletising AND sending the pallets into the customs warehouse..it was very close but that wasn't the only problem!
They ended up with an extra lower-deck pallet! After loading the bulk compt (two trolleys) we broke down the pallet and loaded it into the bulk... we had some left over, what now?
Well the B74SF doesn't have a nose door like its purpose built freighter sisters, instead it has a kind of storage area, maintenance usually keeps stuff like cases of engine/hydraulic oil and even spare tyres. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Since none of us in KUL were qualified for B74F loadsheet (it was on the way out even then...
), there was a load-master on board...we approached him and asked if we could load the overflow in the 'forward bulk' ..he asked "how many boxes do you have?" ... "a couple" was my reply!
To speed things up we pulled back the left side barrier on the airstairs and angled the belt loader so it reached the doorway platform.. We could do this as the cartons were not heavy... We were lucky there was a loadmaster on board, even if we had been qualified I think it would have been difficult to convince the crew!
We couldn't put it the overflow on a later scheduled flight as there was no paperwork (AWB-airwaybill) and the customs had already been 'cleared'.
Didn't delay the flight much too!
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Another charter I remember was when I was working in SIN with CIAS, a ground handling agent..There were a lot of interesting charters and one memorable one was by a forwarder called 'Airmark' if I remember correctly. This was a B747 of the IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) which was specially built as an aerial refueller but still had cargo capability. There was a 'boom operator' in the rear and positions T and S were sacrificed for this. The operated had a contoured couch and lay face down and operated the 'flying boom', remember theIran Air Force had F14 Tomcats! There was a guardrail around this area to protect the operator (from falling freight?!). Some of the aircraft had nose-loading but some had a refuelling receiver in the nose just below the cockpit window.. there was no nose-door and on the inside you could see the hose running down the side of the airplane.
Anyway ...to get back to the charter... The IRIAF brought along their own pallets.. these were military style 88x108ins pallet, not the normal 96/88 x 125ins you find usually... no problem as the aircraft was already configured for this and they had their own loading staff anyway. These military pallets came with their nets but as they were designed for C130 operations they came up very short..solution? drape the nets over the pallets and use jute rope and thread them between the edge of the nets and the base... about 2-3 feet!! Very iffy! A point of note..Military pallets do not use the stud track at the edge which accepts the single/double studs common on civillian ULDs, instead, the pallets have metal loops around the edges and the nets hook onto to them and are tightened like a strap.
The pallets were all built up on time and staged at the postion..
When the first pallet went it...it literally hit the roof! The pallet was built too tall.... this sometimes happens when pallets are not built up well, not a good start! After this was rectified, by the usual way, send a guy up to stomp on the cargo and re-tightening the net, it was found that the second, and third, and practically all pallets were over-height!
What happened was the forwarding agents gave the instructions to its staff as to the number of pallets and type/heights. The usual way the heights are specified is either 96 or 118ins ...the guys followed the instructions and measured the way they usually did (without any problems),from the floor of the pallet, WITHOUT taking into account the fact that the military pallet was about 2 inches thick! There was a lot of running around on the ramp on that day!
Anil