Thanks Ventus top story!
Ironically not much has really changed..fog is still a show stopper and potentially a silent killer and the BoM still struggle to predict to the nth degree the onset of fog...guess that is why they call them forecasts and not..
"today's weather will be!"
Couple of passages from the 40 years ago thread are worth highlighting (my bold):
This philosophy was no more forcibly thumped into our psyche than at the end of July 1971 when Harold Rowell, with Alex Henry as F/O. left Perth on the “midnight horror” in VH-FKC for the run to Port Hedland, Broome and Derby – a run we’d all done a thousand times by then. It was one of those nights in winter when all ports are affected in some way by weather, it is a continual headache to work out your options, and your mind goes like a trip hammer for hours on end. Even Perth and Meekatharra were in and out of alternate conditions on this night and on arrival at Hedland, Harold re-checked the weathers at Broome and Derby, the met. man advising that Broome was socked in with fog but that Derby was CAVOK, with the wet and dry bulb temperatures 4º apart.
So leaving Port Hedland, Harold was carrying fuel for Derby – a trip time of only 54 minutes – and although we would all be suspicious of temperatures that close, he had no legal justification for carrying more fuel for say the next port of Kununurra. But unable to uplift all the passengers and cargo offloaded from the previous flight (due to the same sort of weather problems), yet mindful of the AFAP directive, and having an unusual “feeling” about the conditions, he took on an extra 800lb above that required. So they departed Hedland (where fog was already beginning to form), for Derby with nearly a full load of passengers, including the WA Rugby Team.
Gold..pure gold..should be titled..
"how the west was won!"
Agree 601...why bother waiting around for DCA??