Can't comment on any airline but Ansett, but perhaps two points are worth making in the way AN operated the F27:
- during one Fleet Captain's relatively long reign, (KP, later in life to lose a lot of credibility and many if not most friends, but let's not go there), there were absolutely none, not one, change to SOPs, and
- many of the things AN's SOPs made F27 crews do, which appeared at first glance to many newcomers to the airline to be superfluous and overly complicated, made the transition onto the DC9 (and to a lesser extent, the B727), almost seamless. Someone, (I suspect Henry Theunnisen had a lot to do with it), had really done his homework well and came up with a set of SOPs that were damn near perfect if you looked upon the Friendship as Ansett did - as a training tool for someone who would one day go onto jets. I have to say that I found the DC9 conversion a breeze thanks in large part to the fact that I'd been doing 90% of what I had to do to fly the -9 on the F27.
Stationair8, what you missed saying about those Wynyard or Devonport trips for very junior captains and very new FOs was that as reserve block holders, each would often be doing the trip, just two sectors, as his one trip for the month, each approaching 30 (or was it 35?) days since he'd last flown - and all too often, the captain couldn't (or chose not to!! - bastards!) give away takeoffs and landings. For years, I didn't know there was another way out of Melbourne than by the 150 radial of the ML VOR.
Does anyone else remember the very junior captain who always made a PA telling the pax the bad landing was the FOs?