Wot Capt Airclues said …..
The wonderful freighter steward or stewardess went out when the three 707 freighters were sold for peanuts – allegedly $250,000 per ship including the dual Delco Carousel INSs.
By the time G-KILO arrived someone had done a productivity deal that said there would be no cabin crew on freighters, so for the single RR-200 747 freighter the crew was Captain, F/O and Flight Engineer; no loadie, spanner or cabin crew. General routine after halfway up the climb was - F/O goes and gets the dinner on while F/E gets into F/Os seat and does a bit of poling – usually better than the F/O. After that, refreshments were done by whoever went off for comfort breaks. Rest facilities consisted of a few pax seats on the minimal upper deck, with a balcony looking aft over the main deck.
The ginormous and usually well filled hold got a bit lonely and scary way down the back, looking at all the igloos and covered pallets in the dark, imagining what might jump out at you, so a good question to put to the Captain when you got back to the flight deck was “Hey Skipper – if I din’t come back – who ya gonna send to find me ? ”
In addition to the regular LHR-JFK with 100 tonnes there was a weekly round the world LHR – DXB – HKG – NRT – ANC – LHR. Because trips and crews were (sensibly) not dedicated to the freighter, you could find a freighter sector on any trip line.
When the Falklands war kicked off, it was alleged that the MoD rang BA to say – “We really need your 747 freighter pronto via the STUFT protocol.” only to be told “Sorry chaps, we sold it to Cathay years ago.”
Eeeeeh it were great fun !
LFH
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