18-Wheeler
22nd Sep 2002, 11:05
Let's have some relief from the angst for a while, and tell some of the stories from behind the scenes that we perhaps may not have been able to before.
I fly for Air Atlanta Icelandic, on 747's, and I remember in late 2000 I got a call from the company while I was having time off in Aus. They wanted to know if I was available to fly one of our 747's for Ansett, based in Brisbane. I was really surprised, but I knew that Ansett were having a lot of problems with their 767's at the time.
I was maybe a little selfish, but I was really looking forwards to do trips like that, mainly because it meant the trip to work was only an hours, vs the twenty odd hours it normally takes me to get to the UK to start the typical tour. :)
Of course it didn't end up happening - I never thought it would - but if it did it certainly would have made for interesting times.
I think it was also around mid 1995 or so that I got a call from the GA company I was working for at the time, and they wanted me to get in a Citation 1, take it to Hamiton Island with some parts to rescue a broken down 146. I hadn't flown the Citation for a while, and the 1 I'd only flown on my initial F/O's type rating a few years before, but I reckoned it wouldn't be that hard to do, so away we went.
The ground engineers in Brissy loaded us up with a few boxes of various parts that they though the plane stuck on the island would be needing.
Anyway, we got up there just fine and presented the engineers there with the boxes. After a grand total of three seconds of looking in the boxes, the guy says, "Nah, they're the wrong parts, you'll have to go back and get some more."
So, after a wait of an hour or so we filled up with some pax that had to make connections down in Brissy and off we went back there.
More boxes on arrival, then back to Hamilton.
Right boxes this time, more waiting on the ground, more pax back to Brissy.
No doubt there's other stories from other people.
Go right ahead, please! ;)
I fly for Air Atlanta Icelandic, on 747's, and I remember in late 2000 I got a call from the company while I was having time off in Aus. They wanted to know if I was available to fly one of our 747's for Ansett, based in Brisbane. I was really surprised, but I knew that Ansett were having a lot of problems with their 767's at the time.
I was maybe a little selfish, but I was really looking forwards to do trips like that, mainly because it meant the trip to work was only an hours, vs the twenty odd hours it normally takes me to get to the UK to start the typical tour. :)
Of course it didn't end up happening - I never thought it would - but if it did it certainly would have made for interesting times.
I think it was also around mid 1995 or so that I got a call from the GA company I was working for at the time, and they wanted me to get in a Citation 1, take it to Hamiton Island with some parts to rescue a broken down 146. I hadn't flown the Citation for a while, and the 1 I'd only flown on my initial F/O's type rating a few years before, but I reckoned it wouldn't be that hard to do, so away we went.
The ground engineers in Brissy loaded us up with a few boxes of various parts that they though the plane stuck on the island would be needing.
Anyway, we got up there just fine and presented the engineers there with the boxes. After a grand total of three seconds of looking in the boxes, the guy says, "Nah, they're the wrong parts, you'll have to go back and get some more."
So, after a wait of an hour or so we filled up with some pax that had to make connections down in Brissy and off we went back there.
More boxes on arrival, then back to Hamilton.
Right boxes this time, more waiting on the ground, more pax back to Brissy.
No doubt there's other stories from other people.
Go right ahead, please! ;)