Qf B707 Vh-xba (vh-eba) (Monster Merge!)

[Taildragger67]

I'm still waiting for an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (let alone a reply) from my emails to QFOM in January and April offering my services FREE in helping them get the thing going this end (UK).

Plain rude. I had thought us Aussies were better than that. Maybe I've been away too long.

Either that or business is so good that they can be arrogant.

[triadic]

B707 Vh-xba

The story continues............

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-23349,00.html

Plane that brought world closer to home flies final kangaroo route
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
October 10, 2006

THE plane that changed the way Australians view overseas travel is on its way home.

The federal Government is paying $1 million so a group of volunteer Qantas pilots and former engineers can fly the airline's first Boeing 707 back to Australia after six years on the ground in Britain. It is due to arrive next month and join the collection at Queensland's Qantas Founders Outback Museum.

The City of Canberra was the first of a fleet of 13 707 "V-jets" that changed the way the nation connected with the world. It was also the first Boeing 707 ever to be exported from the US and only the 37th ever made.

The planes were specially built for Qantas and had a cruising speed twice that of the Super Constellations they replaced.

This reduced the travel time from Sydney to London from 48 hours to 27 hours, helping open up the so-called kangaroo route and playing a significant role in bringing migrants to Australia.

A cruising height of 10,660m, compared with 6060m for the Super Constellation, also meant passengers could fly over weather for the first time.

The aircraft would also blaze another trail when Qantas retrofitted its first six 707s and became only the second airline in the world to operate a new type of quieter and more powerful engine using a by-pass fan. This came as a relief to Sydneysiders alarmed by the black smoke and noise from the pure jet engines on the City of Canberra when it was delivered in July 1959.

Ten retired Qantas engineers have been working in Britain to get the plane ready to bring it back to Australia, and a Boeing 707 certified flight crew is standing by to fly it back via the US.

Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson said yesterday the aircraft had played an important role in the nation's history.

[mingalababya]

Anyone know whether the 707-100s had navigators as a part of their flight crew complement? I wonder how they navigated back in those days? I'd imagine INS systems weren't around then. Did they just track from one VOR or NDB to another?

[Taildragger67]

Originally Posted by mingalababya

Anyone know whether the 707-100s had navigators as a part of their flight crew complement? I wonder how they navigated back in those days? I'd imagine INS systems weren't around then. Did they just track from one VOR or NDB to another?

To start the bidding, I can tell you that the bloke who ran the bookshop at the top of my street when I were a lad, had been a QF nav on 707s.

As for methods... I can't help, sorry. I think things like LORAN/triangulation of beacons was the go (but that's a guess on my part).

And I'm STILL waiting for my emails to Longreach to be even acknowledged, let alone answered!

[Feather #3]

Haven't you blokes heard of astro??

G'day

PS the means of navigation, not the wonder-dog

[redsnail]

Only astro I worry about is making sure those GPS satellites are doing their thing.

[Fris B. Fairing]

Just because the aeroplane is 1959 on the outside doesn't necessarily mean it's 1959 on the inside.
Regards

Here's a list of Qantas 707 Navigators

[chimbu warrior]

.................backtracking off the Sydney NDB, waiting for the Honolulu NDB to provide a useful bearing..............

[Taildragger67]

Originally Posted by Feather #3

Haven't you blokes heard of astro??
G'day
PS the means of navigation, not the wonder-dog

I don't recall 707s having an astro-dome...

[mustafagander]

You're right, tailie, they didn't have an astrodome they used a Kollsman Periscopic Sextant.

Loran was also used in the Pacific.

Doppler was fitted and used on all sectors, pilot nav or pro nav. Navs were on board, in my time, only on long oceanic sectors. For the sake of our livers it was just as well, too!!

[HZ123]

As the a/c was with Saudi Royal Familly / Saudi UN Ambassador in NYC surely it must have undergone a number of upgrades as in the early days they spent liberally on their fleet.

[Jamair]

I have heard that Qantas has reacquired and restored its first 707 and intends to fly it to a permanant home at the LRE Qantas Museum. Does anyone know if there any plans for an event like the 747 arrival? That would be an ideal excuse for another PPRUNE bash!

[Torres]

Jamair. There's been a couple of threads on the B707. Here's one in History and Nostalgia Forum.

I think it will be awhile before it gets to Longreach as I believe it may be going where the present Terminal now stands.

And yes, good excuse for a repeat of the B747 PPRuNe Cultural Event!! But this time not at the Welcome Home Hotel!!!

[J430]

lets go!!!!!!!!

let me know.....lets Go!

J

[Torres]

It wouldn't be a "Longreach event" without Chimbu Chuckles!!!

I'll check with the Council and see if I can get an approximate date.

[Fatter Bastard]

Yeah it'd be great to have chuck there.

The whole crowd could gather around while he told us about the time he flew an inverted NDB approach, engine-out to the US aircraft carrier in Moresby harbour in '81, stole the captains hat (with 5 gold bars) and then picked up the captains wife and went back to the airways hotel with her and pammy anderson, sunk 2 slabs of SP and still made it up at 5am the next day for a Hagen return.

[mingalababya]

Here's a more recent pic in its original colours again;

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5838101

and compared with how it looked in 1961 as the original VH-EBA

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0132392/M/

[Arsey Eight]

Qf B707 Vh-xba (vh-eba)

To add some info to the now closed "Woomera" started thread a while back on the ole girl...

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5859559

VH-XBA Has completed most checks at Southend in the UK, and is expected to depart there within the next week to Seattle.

In Seattle it will be involved in celebrations along side John Travolta's B707. After that, it will re-enact its delivery route to Australia across the pacific. Visits to Brisbane, Sydney & Canberra are expected, prior to its final resting spot in Longreach along with VH-EBQ.

Great to see this kind of thing happening. Maybe a DC9 & 727 would be a great addition to the collection..

[triadic]

Back to the top... anyone have an update???

[Chimbu chuckles]

Thanks FB

When did telling funny war stories over mutitudinous beers stop being a favorite pilot passtime?

Given what is going on at work wth refleeting etc I will be unlikely to make it if it happens in the next 12 mths...but sounds like at least one person will be relieved.