St. Kilda's flight low on fuel

[VH-XXX]

Essendon players tell of sky-high scare on board light planes | Herald Sun (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/essendon-st-kilda-clash-in-doubt/story-fn7x8me2-1226288267078)

Ok, so how does this work. They start at Essendon and return to Tulla citing a lack of fuel yet they are a stones throw apart. Wonder what the aircraft type were? DC3?

[VH-XXX]

I actually missed the Albury part. They certainly gave it a fair go and it didn't end in tragedy despite what would be considered significant commercial pressure!

[Cessna 180]

2 metro's carrying Mel as an alternate for Wangaratta. Safe landing carried out at the alternate.
Standard media hype I would say.

[smiling monkey]

Just read the tw33t by one of the players .. Players took to social media to vent their feelings, with Kyle Hardingham tweeting: "First-class flying. Seen toy planes bigger, hope the bloke with the remote knows how to steer."

What did he expect to fly in on a flight to Wangaratta? An A320? lol

[megle2]

GA got off lightly with the standard media hype
Yesterdays forecasts were lousy and no doubt XXX's comment re commercial pressures were spot on
This would probably be a classic case for a pre flight risk assessment review

If the flight was rescheduled for another day with exactly the same conditions / pressures would they go!

[Brian Abraham]

I understand the ground was under water so a game was not on the cards. Seems they went through the motions because it has a bearing on how the points get divvied up.

[MakeItHappenCaptain]

Just read the tw33t by one of the players ..
Quote:
Players took to social media to vent their feelings, with Kyle Hardingham tweeting: "First-class flying. Seen toy planes bigger, hope the bloke with the remote knows how to steer."


That would be by a twit or a twot?:E
(Spelling won't let me write t.w.a.t. directly)

[VH-XXX]

The Herald Sun had a picture of James Hird in the pilots seat of a DC-3 accompanying the story, hence my comments earlier.

[compressor stall]

I have a gut feeling that I have seen that dc3 photo before, some months ago. It is possibly a file photo.

[romeocharlie]

Clearly it was such a long trek all the way to Wang that they needed a charter. The other team must have known a short cut, they took a bus.

[2211race]

Perhaps the pilot was a saints supporter:)

[glekichi]

Really hope that they were Metros not Chieftains. I would not be putting several millions of precious (ugg boots? :}) cargo into two Chieftains on a day like that.

Hedging the future of a football franchise on all four Lycomings...

[megle2]

Race - your on to it
Bombers taken for a ride - St Kilda pocket the 4 points

[wishiwasupthere]

2 Sharp Metro's.

[FoxtrotAlpha18]

And so the AFL has awarded the game to St Kilda because, apparently, Essendon didn't try hard enough to get there! :hmm:

Discuss...

[Teal]

Discuss... AFL apparently endorsed their original decision to fly and said they'd share the points when the game did not go ahead. Then they did a back flip when the Essendon-haters arced up!

Given the rain and flood warnings all week and the appalling weather on Saturday, I was surprised they still wanted to fly at all. I had visions of Manchester United in 1958.

Munich air disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_air_disaster)

Thankfully, all ended well apart from some airsick players tweeting their dissatisfaction. Just the NAB Cup after all.....:rolleyes:

[Dog One]

Not the best of days or runs for a Metro. The short air distance Melbourne Wangaratta would make the aircraft landing weight limited, supposing that they could land at MLW. 19 hulking footballers plus gear would be close to MZW, which doesn't allow a lot of margin fuel, especially at low level.

Doesn't look good to joe public, especially some of the twits from the twits!!

[jas24zzk]

Clearly it was such a long trek all the way to Wang that they needed a charter. The other team must have known a short cut, they took a bus.

Evidently Essendon made the better choice. Rumour has it, that the saints are going to be hard pressed to get back in time for the start of the home and away season, unless the chinese manage to manufacture them a big enough set of floaties for the bus... :E

[romeocharlie]

I stand corrected :O

[eocvictim]

Pretty sure they were split over 2 aircraft; I don't think many teams, or any group of "higher" individuals, will fly on the same aircraft any longer to reduce the odds of a total loss.

[VH-XXX]

Doesn't stop the whole team from flying on a 737 together....

Suspect there was no aircraft handy that was big enough for the whole group, hence the two aircraft.

We don't think like that in Australia do we?

[compressor stall]

Entire AFL teams and management commonly travel on the one aircraft.

[Johnny_56]

not sure if the Essendon football team would count as 'precious cargo'...