Falklands Airbridge

[brakedwell]

Producing greasers in the VC10 is made easier by the ground cushion effect. Landing a B767-300 with it's underslung engines smoothly is relatively easy compared to the B757, which has the biggest ground clearance of any Boeing ever made.

[[email protected]]

Back to the thread and I would echo all of Datalynx and Jimlads points - the seating arrangements are just terrible, there is no reason not to allocate and retain seats for the whole journey and the decision to go for the freeforall approach seems to have been done purely for the convenience of the movers.

[brit bus driver]

Thanks Arty...I thought that at the time of writing (hence the 1500R reference) but couldn't remember the exact parameters. These days I prefer an aircraft that auto-trims throughout the entire envelope!

Go easy on the new boss:ok:

[wiggy]

Thread drift: - Brings back memories but at long last ( since '83 if you must know) I now know what that bridge was doing in the middle of nowhere...( Bodie-Creek bridge). I recall just a little disbelief on Phandet at my suspension bridge story until I was able to produce the Strike camera piccys ( which are at the bottom of a box in the loft at the moment).....

[Data-Lynx]

Nomorefree and Farfrompuken set me looking for a bit more detail on ASI. The Typhoon stream to MPA report (http://www.raf.mod.uk/no1group/news/index.cfm?storyid=6ECC2A45-5056-A318-A89447B37F78758A) included: Normally, a night landing is nothing to get excited about, but Ascension is unique in several regards. Firstly, there is no diversion airfield within a thousand miles, so ac are required to carry 60 minutes’ holding fuel, which means landing at an high fuel weight. This is exacerbated by the slope on the runway, which is uphill for the first 2000ft and generates an unpleasant visual illusion, which can result in firm landings for the unaware. The runway then has a pronounced hump, followed by a steep downhill slope – far from ideal when landing at a heavy weight, and making a blessing of Typhoon’s excellent braking system. The final complication was 2 steep-sided hills on either side of the runway, with a ¼ mile stagger between them. The hills generate some interesting local wind effects that require the pilot to be very alive to last minute direction changes

PS. My log book has one night landing at ASI - vertically onto floodlit concrete in Apr 82 and is therefore irrelevant.

[Jumping_Jack]

Wiggy, you mean this one?

http://i45.tinypic.com/34yqq2u.jpg

Looks very impressive especially with no sense of scale!! :}

J_J

[DADDY-OH!]

It's a piece of cake when you get used to it...just ask BEagle....
:ok:

[old fart]

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh48/Griff747/ASImar07038edited.jpg

Cheers

[DummyRun]

I know nothing about landing "big jets" or little jets like Typhoon but seem to remember that the last time I landed at Asi, in a C130J, it wasn't that difficult.
Point at the piano keys, and, er, plonk it on.

I will defer to the golden handed sky gods of CFS, but closing one eye, sticking tongue out of corner of mouth and telling co, that looks about right (TLAR), seemed to work; certainly landing at ASI is not as demanding as Tarin Kowt with no moon.....

Was trying really hard not to use the phrase " man up and dry your eyes wet pants, Captain"

Load Moving...........

Dummy Run.

[Data-Lynx]

Now Dummy, I could ask what you were doing in the high country at night with no lights, but it could be mission creep.

One is Dutch, the other is an Aussie and both are aircrew.

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/6352/hollandvsaussiebx2.jpg

[Army Mover]

One is Dutch, the other is an Aussie and both are aircrew
Looking at the Aussie name tag, there's a fair chance she came from Holland as well; I knew I married one for a reason :eek:

[L1011effoh]

Sorry for the reminiscences. . .

First sector on the C2 line training into ASI, passing 1000' on approach after reporting 'COLTS' inbound, the Training Captain looks up at the overhead panel and starts swearing and calling the Boss a W**nk*r amongst other things. I looked across at him whilst 'wrestling' with the controls. He said "just in case we crash, I wanted to get a few last words on the voice recorder". Not a vote of confidence, but it certainly made me smile and relax - and yes, the landing was OK.

Happy times!

[scroggs]

Guys, I would like to know if there was an airbridge using C-130 between Ascencion and the Bristish Task Force during the war in 1982.

In an Argentinian Forum we are wondering how come they fly so long from Ascencion (?) and back.
At that moment they were using air refuling in the C-130s???

There was no airbridge to the islands - the Argentinians weren't too keen on us landing at the time! But there were supply flights from Ascension to the Task Force and certain other units throughout the conflict. Some of these used AAR, and some of the aircraft also had extra fuel tanks in the fuselage (Hercules C1PLR2).

[RS30]

I may be able to give some details on the Falklands War C130 airbridge. My logbook shows I flew as co-pilot on the primary RV 2 Victor tanker on "Cadbury 2" "Julie" on the 22 May 82. This was the second AAR supported C130 airdrop of supplies to the task force. I also flew on "Cadbury 5" "Olive" on 28 May, "Cadbury 7" on 30 May, "Cadbury 12" "Yvonne" on 7 June, "Cadbury 14" "Zara" on 9 June, "Cadbury 16" on 11 June and "Cadbury 18" "Elaine" on the 13 June. "Cadbury 18" op involved two tanker waves and two C130 which were to airdrop SF. On this occasion we had our only HDU failure and one C130 had to abort back to ASI. These entries seem to give at least 18 AAR supported C130 airdrop missions before the the surrender on 14 June. After that date I logged a further 35 "Cadbury" ops during 3 further deployments to ASI in 1982. The last logged was "Cadbury 190" on 8 Dec 82. The Victor sorties supporting the "Cadbury" missions seem to be either Short (3-4 hours) Primary RV1 (5-6 hours) and Primary RV2 (9-10 hours) involving between 3 and 5 tankers per C130. Between the "Cadbury" trips during the conflict I logged 4 "Tuppence" missions (Nimrod 2P), 2 "BLackbucks" (4 and 6 Vulcan Shrike Ops), a GR3 trail to the Hermes and refuelled the return of the Vulcan north on 14 June. I think the AAR support of the C130 airbridge was possibly the most important role of the Victors during the conflict, notwithstanding the AAR trail of 16 Harriers (SHAR and GR3 via Banjul in the Gambia which were my first Op trips) to ASI, all of which reinforced the Task Force. Sometimes I wonder if people just think the Victors did "Blackbuck 1" and sunbathed the rest of the time!:cool:

[CIVI-UK]

Hi,

Just got back from a 7 day trip to the Falklands flying using air Seychelles from Brize. In answer to your question the aircraft seemed like any other charter a/c i was fortunately upfront and had a pleasent flight with loads of legroom. My colleague who flew standard class said it was a like any other charter flight (so not great legroom). I found the onboard service great with plenty of meals and ok in flight entertainment. The a/c seemed to be in good order/clean inside with the aircrew giving regular updates if turbulance was expected etc. Hope this answers ur questions and hope your expiernce was as good as mine.

Tristan

[KeyPilot]

No posts on Falklands airbridge for exactly a year. Who's got the contract now?

[Laarbruch72]

Air Seychelles.

[The Curator]

L1011effoh........
Captain's initials wouldn't have been P.F. would they...?
He had a habit of saying things like that, ...amongst others.....:)

[L1011effoh]

L1011effoh........
Captain's initials wouldn't have been P.F. would they...?
He had a habit of saying things like that, ...amongst others.....


Funnily enough, it was PF. A marvellous instructor.

Other sayings such as "you're officially ugly again now", very witty if not universally appreciated by the recipients:D

[brit bus driver]

Other classic F*xisms....

"When this man says 'I have control'....he lies"

"Stand down the Group 2 Duty Pilot"

"Do you smell unwell woman?"

And his classic PA referencing Tornado aircrew, the cones hotline and a long coach journey to East Anglia!

[Mmmmnice]

Never had a problem landing on ASI - didn't make the mistake of moving forward when I did it though - always from the hover!

[22/7 Master]

Any word on the currnet Ocean Guardian drilling off the FI. Perhaps we can have a pprune insider trading ring!

[Sandy Parts]

Going by their success rate so far - "for that reason - I'm out (not in a GLBT way mind)"

[The Curator]

L10lleffoh......
Thought it was.....
You should have heard what he used to say to the BA Stewardesses when we both were Instructing at Cranebank...........
Happy Days indeed...........Always a pleasure to fly with him.....Such a dry sense of wit.....:ok:

[Idle Reverse]

Am I alone in wishing that we had the Air Atlanta 747 back on the ASI - Falklands Airbridge again ?

Loads of freight capability, comfortable, ample seating.

Oh, and yeah, that other factor that made you feel snug and warm
over the huge expanse of south atlantic ocean waters . . . . 4 BIG ENGINES !

;)

[Kengineer-130]

The 747 airbridge was a great service to fly on, as said, 4 engines always gives a nice warm fuzzy feeling!

[servodyne]

PF classic
whilst on a night stop in Edinburgh (stuck out at the moat house by the forth road bridge) PF decided we would sample the delights of haggis and nips in the city. We had to catch the local bus to get there. He stood outside the bus as all 13 of us climbed aboard, he counted us all on then turned to the driver and asked for 1 adult and 12 halfs! confidence was high!!

[DADDY-OH!]

Idle Reverse & Kengineer'

The outgoing CBFFI has just sent a letter to Air Seychelles asking it to be circulated to all SEY staff engaged on the AirBridge. It states how much he enjoyed the service, how professional he thought the crews were, the punctuality & dispatch rates & the overall experience was very impressive.

The contract requirements are for movement of a particular payload each rotation each week. This is most efficiently served by a B767-300ER size aircraft, an old B747 costs too much to run for servicing this route & with the MoD squeezing to keep costs down, it makes sense to use an aircraft of optimum size. But if needs be you can squeeze an extra 20 tonnes of payload on each rotation. It's a cracking economic & versatile aircraft for that route.

4 engines it may not be, 276 seat config for max load of 200 & only 24 fully reclining 'sleeper' seats in Pearl (business) Class it has, it almost keeps the published TriStar schedule & burns 4 tonnes of Jet A per hour.

As options go, it a relatively cheap, practical & very capable one.

[euringineer]

The Route BZZ-ASI- MPA is a British designated route to be flown by European carriers but British preferably. 12 British B747 Classic crews were made redundant because the last government were conned into allowing those DC 10s crewed by Americans chartered by a British company ( non flying ) in 2007. Now BZZ is a parking slot for any number of foreign carriers who have taken British jobs. And I thought the XL management were a bunch of " Barrow Boys " what a joke MOD takes the cake

[DADDY-OH!]

I couldn't agree more, Euringineer!

[pwwuk]

Who is operating the Airbridge now ? Anyone flow on it recently .. I've may have to do a 'there and back' in five days and just wanted to work out how painful it would be .. as a S/L not sure if there are any seats at the front that will make more survivable .. if I was going for a tour I would not care, but for a 'flying visit' may well have 'cabin fever' by the time I return.

[Wycombe]

Not to close to these things these days, but believe it's Titan on their 767-300.

[WE992]

Perhaps it will be operated by aircraft owned by Air Tanker in the near future?

[vascodegama]

Not sure about the NEAR future WE

PW-it is TITAN but no big seats at the front-all cattle class!