Dear Donald,
Ex RAFand also ex Lic.Eng in the civilian world....26 years as the latter.....you were saying about armchair "experts".?
Ground ops.....with the best will in the world to all those whom I met in this capacity over the years
and locations (various) are not engineers and handling an aircraft in this capacity offers a limited involvement in engineering functions.
In the UK / Europe the airstairs were a standard fit....the GPU for reasons I mention plus an air-start as a contigency.
Incidentally, the RAF do not operate B737's of any series...this should have given you a clue.
The reason for my response was that your own gave the impression of offering advice which had already been covered and you wished to self-promote your own "experience".
Like many on here, I freely offer advice and clarifications to those who have a valid reason or are merely curious and am happy to do so. I also seek advice at times based on the same criteria.
Now, put the Kleenex away and lets all be friends again...who knows, we may even meet in 2013 if my plans to visit Oz for the Ashes series come off and I get to see a bit of the country as well.