Flight West Reunion

[Torres]

A Flight West Airlines reunion is scheduled for Saturday 6 August 2016 at the Breakfast Creek Hotel, commencing at 1500.

I guess ex Talair staff may also be welcome.

It is now 29 years since that first flight Brisbane to Longreach, which departed at 6.30 am on Monday 1 June 1987.

[Jabawocky]

I remember those days of Bandits and Bras……travelling to regional ports with my first job.

The F/O doing the sandwich and orange juice drop in the Bandit.

I wonder if this prompted me to learn to fly? :ooh:

[Torres]

Must have been along the coast and in the 1990s?

The original Flight West very successfully operated B200 King Airs to 17 air ports in Western Queensland, from bases in Brisbane and Townsville.

The EMB120 Brasilia was the perfect upgrade from the King Airs on the Western routes.

The only other aircraft were three air conditioned Beech 58 Barons based at Roma and Longreach for the Flying Surgeon/Flying Gyno.

It was a great operation with wonderful, professional, dedicated people in those early days.

[Stationair8]

Fifteen years since Flight West Airlines finished, seems like only yesterday!

Didn't they operate some Dash8's as well in Australia?

[Jabawocky]

Early 90's indeed. I remember one hot and turbulent day in a Bandit from TL-RK I think. Trip home to BN was in the 120 and was far more civilised in the FL's.

[Stanwell]

Ah yes, the Flight West team - Professional, friendly, helpful and always with a great sense of humour.
In the late 80s and early 90s I used their services a lot to ports west - usually B200s.

I even had occasion to use the services of one of the Flying Surgeons who used to arrive by B58.
Can't remember his name but he was a real character - and, deaf as a post... but, a surgeon without peer.

I'll raise a glass to all those from FWA on August 6th. :ok:


p.s. TAA's F27s were more comfortable.

[topdrop]

Didn't they operate some Dash8's as well in Australia
Yes, sold them just before major runway works at Gladstone. They had to lease some back to enable a reasonable uplift. Heard the Bras could only carry 2 pax to BN due reduced rwy length.

[megle2]

Didn't the engineers detest the pilots and the pilots hated admin and admin hated the FA' and the FA's couldnt stand .......... And Junior thought they all could do more ect ect

[Torres]

I even had occasion to use the services of one of the Flying Surgeons who used to arrive by B58.
Can't remember his name but he was a real character - and, deaf as a post... but, a surgeon without peer.

Tony Paul, Surgeon, Roma??

Didn't the engineers detest the pilots and the pilots hated admin and admin hated the FA' and the FA's couldnt stand .......... And Junior thought they all could do more ect ect

Yes, the culture changed. Fortunately most of the original team who "made it happen" had moved on by then.

[Stationair8]

Did they operate in the TAA reservation system, then went across to the Ansett system?

A pretty quick start up in those days from nothing to operating the first service in six weeks.

One of the CASA guys in Darwin was one of their first captains on the B200.

[Torres]

Did they operate in the TAA reservation system, then went across to the Ansett system?

No. Ansett Res System from the beginning. Flights operated from Ansett's Gate 49 at Brisbane Airport.

A pretty quick start up in those days from nothing to operating the first service in six weeks.

No, 16 days. Contract advised to bidder Friday 15 May, 1987. First flight Monday 1 June 1987. A record to form a company and obtain an AOC? :E

One of the CASA guys in Darwin was one of their first captains on the B200.

Deefa!! Came soon after commencement, along with a military contract. :}

[megle2]

How did they achieve the AOC and start up so quickly, all prepared in advance on the expectation of a win I guess. Congrats to casa also ( or whoever they were then ) would be X times slower and pretty well impossible today especially with the increase in ops admin staff. Didn't mini mains originate from FW

[Torres]

How did they achieve the AOC and start up so quickly, all prepared in advance on the expectation of a win I guess.

No, No thought of being awarded the Contract until the phone call on 15 May.

Congrats to casa also ( or whoever they were then ) ....

Congrats to some at DCA, maybe not all....... :D

A great effort by a small very professional team.

[Capt Fathom]

DCA?

Well maybe not that far back? :E

[Torres]

It may have been CAA? I don't remember. Same creature, different names.......

Owen Laurie was the Regional Director based in Brisbane.

[Jabawocky]

SO **** can happen in a timely manner……….. :-/

[Stanwell]

Torres,
The Flying Surgeon referred to was Tony Paul from Roma.
Thank you. :ok:

[Torres]

I last saw Tony and his wife a number of years ago at his home on the Sunshine Coast. I suspect he may have now passed away.

The Flying Gyno, Jim Baker also passed away a few years ago in Roma.

It was a great service but was an overkill when it moved to C90s and B200s with a different operator. One of the C90s was later involved in a fatal crash at Toowoomba, with Queensland Health staff on board. No doubt the greatly increased and rather unnecessary cost of turbine aircraft contributed to the demise of the service?

Interesting document here by Ron Entsch (GM of Bushies): http://bushies.net/RHE/Flying%20Surgeon%20Service%20(FSS),%20The%20-%20Ron%20Entsch.pdf

Historical photo of Sid Williams (Chairman of Bushies), Lew Edwards and Tony Paul at Longreach. Tony was the Flying Surgeon from 1969 to 1998.

Great memories of the Flight West service. A great team and the characters of the west. One day perhaps, the story may be told? Or maybe it should remain just a fond memory of those involved?

[Stationair8]

Great story on the flying surgeon.

Knew somebody that got the coveted flying job with Australian Airlines and was already smelling the Jet fuel, dreaming of the DC-9 or B737 etc, only find himself flying a C310 on the flying surgeon contract in the back of beyond!

How many B200's did Flight West have when they started?

[Torres]

Nothing wrong with starting a flying career with the Flying Surgeon Service. :ok:

I don't think any of the Flight West aircraft were operational on day one? I think there may have been two cross hired aircraft? I can't remember, would need to check.

One early B200 was VH-SKC, ex Philippines RP-C200, arrived full of gremlins and cost a fortune to get operational. It was a very early production aircraft (S/N BB-47) and very light. Sadly it finished it's days on 4 September 2000...........

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Australia_Beechcraft_King_Air_crash

Another King Air was ferried from Sweden or Norway, suffering a fuel pump failure in Sri Lanka. I think another was bought in New Zealand?

High density seating and belly pods were purchased for all company aircraft.

Flight West had a brilliant, dedicated Chief Engineer who efficiently brought the aircraft into service, with the minimum of operational problems.

The Chief Pilot was very experienced, one of the highest time King Air pilots in Australia.

The late Noel Bellamy wrote the first Operations Manual.

[megle2]

From the FS article I see pilot Shorty Bartrum featured. He went on to fly the C90 CMT for Thiess Brothers and later brought the first B200 THS to Aus. Noel Bellamy was a great guy, didn't realise he wrote the OM

[puff]

Some of the King Air regos were
SKC
SKN
XRP
XRF
XDB

Sure I missed some(got some wrong) but some that I remember anyway...

[Torres]

Puff.

SKC came from the Philippines, ex RP-C200 owned by the Bank of the Philippine Islands.

SKN was a nice machine, from New Zealand.

XRP, initials of the Chairman, Bob Paul.

XDB, Dennis initials, came from Oklahoma.

XRF for the GM and for the CP. :ok:

[Sweet Surrender]

From memory (with the help of my log book) there were 6 King Airs. The last callsign being XFB.

[Torres]

The first two operational King Airs were VH-TNQ and VH-SPQ, leased from SkyWest in Perth.

VH-TNQ operated the first flight from Brisbane to Longreach on 1 June 1987.

VH-SPQ was based in Townsville for the Townsville to Mt Isa service.

Next Tuesday 1 July 2016 marks the 29th Anniversary of the first Flight West flight.

Oh, what could have been had sanity prevailed............ :(

[Stationair8]

Didn't one of the B200 pilots in TL, star in Penthouse magazine about having open heart surgery and then back flying in record time, and also flying Mig jets for some dictator during some war in a third world country?

[Torres]

"...flying Mig jets for some dictator during some war..."

I know of whom you speak. :E Star in Penthouse....?? The mind boggles at the thought.

I'm surprised about the alleged open heart surgery. No knowledge at all.

[Stationair8]

Torres, the younger generation probably thing Penthouse is some sort of real estate magazine.

Didn't the said gentleman write a book about his adventures?

I can't read so only looked at the pictures in that publication!

Will the other gentleman that posed as a Flight West Captain along with being senior base pilot at Maroochydore and complete with lovely business card that was presented at checkin desks while trying to con jump seat rides or free rides in the south be attending? Or has moved on to some other profession these days?

[Stationair8]

Noel Bellamy's ops manuals, funny CASA seemed to have no problems accepting them in those days. If you got a new aeroplane type or needed something else added in to the ops manual you sent all the stuff down to him and it was approved asap.

Then ops manual became a black art, Chief Pilots would lock themselves away in a room for months trying to get the mighty tomb approved- bit like getting a new pope only more complicated!

Wouldn't have a copy of the original Flight West Timetable from that era, that can be put on Pprune?

Why did FWA replace the B200 with the Jetstream?

[jetskipro]

chief engineer was a legend, hans Aeberli. I trained under him and am the man i am today due to him. i will never forget anything Hans taught me.

[jetskipro]

there was 6

[Torres]

I heard there was a book written but didn't see it myself. A few that did read it wondered whether it was fact or fiction! :}

Don't know who was from Maroochydore. No w-----s in the company in the time I am familiar with.

Noel Bellamy had contacts!! An illustrious previous Air Force career helped significantly with DCA...........

Why did FWA replace the B200 with the Jetstream?

Well, why not? It was obviously a logical decision by later company management, based on the following supporting facts:


TAA operated three Jetstreams very unsuccessfully in Western Queensland, using chartered Navajos to carry the baggage.

The company only had Continental IO-520, PT6A-27, -34, -41, -42, PW118, PW120 turbines and RR Speys, why not a few Garret turbines that would be temp limited in the Western Queensland Summers?

Barons, King Airs, Bandits, Twotters, Dash 8s, Brasilias, Fokkers - a few Jetstreams would nicely round out the fleet types.

Half the payload, higher operating costs and slower speeds than the Brasilia, certainly made the Jetstream attractive to Company management.

Previous Garret turbine operating experience in the Solomons that ended in tears was probably the deal clincher for the Jetstream purchase.


I'm sure there are other supporting factors in favour of the decision to acquire Jetstreams.

In later years it was all a disaster looking for a place to happen.

:}

[Stationair8]

If FWA had been better managed in later years it would have been interesting to see where it was today.

As XRF once commented over a beer, the fashion catalogues or what was on sale at Katie's seem to be more important!

No copies of the timetable from that era?

[Ancient Rotorhead]

From memory (with the help of my log book) there were 6 King Airs. The last callsign being XFB.

My logbook confirms six King Airs. Agree XFB was missing from the initial list.


I can now throw that "things to do slip " into the circular filing cabinet

[AussieO2]

I have a full fleet list for this airline if anyone wants more info, some of the 'one day' leased in a/c are interesting, but I do not have a copy of the first timetable.

[601]

OWN - Did several flights under the Flight West banner.