Last 727 flght for AAE
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Sydney Australia
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The Good Old Days
As an old SLF I didn't really like the 727 - very nosiy down the back where I used to travel.
I vividly remember the contrast between the 727 and the 767. I was living in Sydney & doing some work in Brisbane when Ansett introduced the 767 (must have the mid-80's ?). Returned from Brisbane to Sydney in a chock-a-block 727, and in the hot weather we really struggled on the climb out. Two weeks later we were on a brand new 767, with roughly the same number of passengers, so half empty. Geez - take off felt like being in the Space Shuttle ! I still remember looking down after taking off out over the bay and climbing back over the city. It looked like we were already half way to cruising altitude. What a buzz !
I'm so old that I can remember flying in a BOAC Britannia, and the domestic Viscounts and Electras. But my favorite aircraft (as SLF) has to be the 747. A great moment for me was getting to sit in the cockpit jump seat for a dusk landing into Sydney in a 747 - none of that now thanks to 9-11
You chaps up the front get a great view !
I vividly remember the contrast between the 727 and the 767. I was living in Sydney & doing some work in Brisbane when Ansett introduced the 767 (must have the mid-80's ?). Returned from Brisbane to Sydney in a chock-a-block 727, and in the hot weather we really struggled on the climb out. Two weeks later we were on a brand new 767, with roughly the same number of passengers, so half empty. Geez - take off felt like being in the Space Shuttle ! I still remember looking down after taking off out over the bay and climbing back over the city. It looked like we were already half way to cruising altitude. What a buzz !
I'm so old that I can remember flying in a BOAC Britannia, and the domestic Viscounts and Electras. But my favorite aircraft (as SLF) has to be the 747. A great moment for me was getting to sit in the cockpit jump seat for a dusk landing into Sydney in a 747 - none of that now thanks to 9-11
You chaps up the front get a great view !
Join Date: Oct 2007
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You know, I don't think it is the Aircraft so much, it is the fact that the DC9 and the B727 were thinking mens aeroplanes. As time goes on and the Airlines (and Manufacturers) take away the ability of man to think for himself, and bombard him with their bloody manuals, (I am sure there is one on how to take a Pi#s whilst on board) many older and probably younger pilots look back with nostalgia, to when they could strap a A/C to their ar$e and have fun, serious fun, but fun all the same. Also the loss of the Flight Engineer, always a important member of the crew (and had all the info on the best pubs) I liked having a "stoker" (or a coachdriver as they called themselves, because they sat behind two ars$holes) always interesting to talk to, especially in the dead of night, always a good brain to have around when there was a problem, and to say nothing of the fact by the time you got home, you knew how to fix the car, toaster, washing machine or whatever, always a site of information. Ask any senior C/T Capt on the 400 what he enjoyed most on the 200, it will be (1) he could still think for himself (just) (2) he had a Flight Engineer. Time marches on.
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Farewell the Pointer Sisters
I've always loved the 727.
My first flight on a jet aircraft was as a six year old SY-CS on a TAA 727 (still remember the advertising "The Whispering T Jet", ironic now).
As an 8 year old unaccompanied minor SY-PH in the middle of the night I had my first visit to the cockpit (have always thought that the events of 9/11 and subsequent security regulations would have a large impact on the amount of people desiring a career in the cockpit). I remember that visit vividly to this day. A smoke filled cockpit, with 3 crew, all lit up, explaining patiently how an aircraft flies, what the various instruments did, lighting up the annunciators and taking the time to impart a love of aviation to a child. Well that did it, I was hooked.
A family friend was an Ansett 727 captain. He advised and guided me through a lot of my early training until he went to the middle east in 1989.
My ATPL performance exam was based on the 727 (BN-TL-CS i think, funny, flew that a lot in the real aircraft).
I've flown a lot of aircraft types from GA through to Airlines, at home and abroad, but jumped at the chance to fly the 727. Bad career move possibly(friends said if they don't build it then don't fly it) but never regretted the decision to accept the offer.
I had the privilage and pleasure of being amongst probably one of the last pilots to obtain a 727 endorsement in Australia. I'm not still flying that aircraft now only because I need to provide for my family.
The aircraft handled beautifully, it had performance, an analog cockpit with the smallest ADI I'd seen in my life, and it required something that modern aircraft do not, skill and ability.
My last flight on the 72, before leaving to take a position on the 777 was an absolute pleasure, even the missed approach LT and diversion HB due fog with eventual return ML. After that 5 sector night, before leaving to commence my new position, I knew that I would never really "fly" again!
The people I flew with I will never forget. Characters from the old days of Ansett and TAA. Captains that had flown the aircraft since it was introduced to Australia. Flight Engineers that could actually fix something that broke. Wonderful interesting people, still full of the love of flying, amazing stories and intimate knowledge of best place for a beer in any destination.
Speaking on the flight deck today, when the time comes to talk about how you got to sit where your sitting, every pilot who never had the opportunity to fly the 727, expresses a whimsical desire that they had had the opportunity to have done so.
Thanks guys, it was fun.
My first flight on a jet aircraft was as a six year old SY-CS on a TAA 727 (still remember the advertising "The Whispering T Jet", ironic now).
As an 8 year old unaccompanied minor SY-PH in the middle of the night I had my first visit to the cockpit (have always thought that the events of 9/11 and subsequent security regulations would have a large impact on the amount of people desiring a career in the cockpit). I remember that visit vividly to this day. A smoke filled cockpit, with 3 crew, all lit up, explaining patiently how an aircraft flies, what the various instruments did, lighting up the annunciators and taking the time to impart a love of aviation to a child. Well that did it, I was hooked.
A family friend was an Ansett 727 captain. He advised and guided me through a lot of my early training until he went to the middle east in 1989.
My ATPL performance exam was based on the 727 (BN-TL-CS i think, funny, flew that a lot in the real aircraft).
I've flown a lot of aircraft types from GA through to Airlines, at home and abroad, but jumped at the chance to fly the 727. Bad career move possibly(friends said if they don't build it then don't fly it) but never regretted the decision to accept the offer.
I had the privilage and pleasure of being amongst probably one of the last pilots to obtain a 727 endorsement in Australia. I'm not still flying that aircraft now only because I need to provide for my family.
The aircraft handled beautifully, it had performance, an analog cockpit with the smallest ADI I'd seen in my life, and it required something that modern aircraft do not, skill and ability.
My last flight on the 72, before leaving to take a position on the 777 was an absolute pleasure, even the missed approach LT and diversion HB due fog with eventual return ML. After that 5 sector night, before leaving to commence my new position, I knew that I would never really "fly" again!
The people I flew with I will never forget. Characters from the old days of Ansett and TAA. Captains that had flown the aircraft since it was introduced to Australia. Flight Engineers that could actually fix something that broke. Wonderful interesting people, still full of the love of flying, amazing stories and intimate knowledge of best place for a beer in any destination.
Speaking on the flight deck today, when the time comes to talk about how you got to sit where your sitting, every pilot who never had the opportunity to fly the 727, expresses a whimsical desire that they had had the opportunity to have done so.
Thanks guys, it was fun.
Join Date: Jul 2000
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I loved watching them blast out of Cairns. Pretty much the only plane that would make everyone on the tarmac/aeroglen/esplanade stop and take a look. (No doubt trying to see what was making their ears bleed 
)
)
It will be sad not seeing them tucked down the south western corner of Perth Airport when I poke my head in there anymore.
Those ugly short little 737's just don't have the sleek look of the 727, they are all but a toy
Those ugly short little 737's just don't have the sleek look of the 727, they are all but a toy
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Real aeroplanes
Never flew the 72 but had a lot of fun in the DC-3 and DC-9.
My old man flew everything TAA had from Dragon to 727 except the F27 and reckoned the 72 was the best aircraft he ever flew.
That was TAA gettin' away first.
My old man flew everything TAA had from Dragon to 727 except the F27 and reckoned the 72 was the best aircraft he ever flew.
That was TAA gettin' away first.
Join Date: Feb 2005
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TXH and another old friend
I was visiting the "3" and wandered over to get a close look at TXH and her fuel leaks as well as a different angle in Perth in 2008.
The three does her last flights that you can get on, this coming Sat for anyone in PH.
Another great aircraft to leave the sky for no other reason than some people in power reckoning they shouldn't be flying.
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Gooday 60's 
You are sure that TAA unit did not have a fire in one of them 3 donks!
Bloody smokey old thing.
Have to say my younger days and mnay others were in the 727 and DC9 when the crew took us kids up the front were priveleged indeed!
J
You are sure that TAA unit did not have a fire in one of them 3 donks!
Bloody smokey old thing.Have to say my younger days and mnay others were in the 727 and DC9 when the crew took us kids up the front were priveleged indeed!
J
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Up the front
Yeah Jaba, I was one of those kids then later one of those pilots...you could tell some kids were immediately gettin' the bug. They weren't the gits that just kept asking what's that, what's this wha's... as their eyes darted everywhere either.
It was nice to get big girls up and leanin' forward to look out the window.
The indomintable Rob Riley and I had a good thing going on one flight Bris to Cairns, when a lady who was a pathfinder in the days of going braless, came up for a visit.
She'd had a number of wines to calm her pre-flight nerves and a number more to remain calm on the long flight.
She was brought up to show that there was nothing to worry about.
She was nicely nicely enough to have lost her sense of self preservation and her shirt gaped most enticingly.
Riley and I as the team that we were, wordlessly devised a scheme where one of us would get her attention while the other kept the grin off his face and didn't go crosseyed with bliss.
It was working well till she copped me and moved back suddenly, gripping the front of her shirt.
She left, with the confirmation that, "All men are bastards".
Riley slid his seat back, lit up (his mo was mostly grey except for one edge that was a caramel colour from the nicotine that came from the chain smoking) glared at me and told me I'd be getting no legs tomorrow.
Later, while waiting for the Salvo's to arrive so we could put money in the collecting box at the "Rissole", he forgave me and reckoned it had been a great flight, but I still had a lot to learn before I could become a captain.
The only aircraft that people can go up the front of now is the DC-3 and guess who's trying to have that dangerous past time stopped.
It was nice to get big girls up and leanin' forward to look out the window.
The indomintable Rob Riley and I had a good thing going on one flight Bris to Cairns, when a lady who was a pathfinder in the days of going braless, came up for a visit.
She'd had a number of wines to calm her pre-flight nerves and a number more to remain calm on the long flight.
She was brought up to show that there was nothing to worry about.
She was nicely nicely enough to have lost her sense of self preservation and her shirt gaped most enticingly.
Riley and I as the team that we were, wordlessly devised a scheme where one of us would get her attention while the other kept the grin off his face and didn't go crosseyed with bliss.
It was working well till she copped me and moved back suddenly, gripping the front of her shirt.
She left, with the confirmation that, "All men are bastards".
Riley slid his seat back, lit up (his mo was mostly grey except for one edge that was a caramel colour from the nicotine that came from the chain smoking) glared at me and told me I'd be getting no legs tomorrow.
Later, while waiting for the Salvo's to arrive so we could put money in the collecting box at the "Rissole", he forgave me and reckoned it had been a great flight, but I still had a lot to learn before I could become a captain.
The only aircraft that people can go up the front of now is the DC-3 and guess who's trying to have that dangerous past time stopped.
Rob Riley, a top guy.
Big on smokes but was my Fed rep when I was crook.
He had a flat on the broadwater at Bribie Island which we stayed at for a week, no charge!
Wish he was still around to add to these posts.
Big on smokes but was my Fed rep when I was crook.
He had a flat on the broadwater at Bribie Island which we stayed at for a week, no charge!
Wish he was still around to add to these posts.
thanks for the memories
Whispering "T" Jet
It's already been arranged.
Glenn Dunston's B727 DVD will be played on Friday and Saturday morning in the main bar - 0630 screening with the BIG breakfast !
Jerka is responsible for any other DVD/videos entertainment !
Fitzy and Jack R are organising the poker machine tour and Spud Murphy will be in charge of wet drills.
You and I will be responsible for the 1990 and 1992 AFL Grand Final DVD replays.
Glenn Dunston's B727 DVD will be played on Friday and Saturday morning in the main bar - 0630 screening with the BIG breakfast !
Jerka is responsible for any other DVD/videos entertainment !
Fitzy and Jack R are organising the poker machine tour and Spud Murphy will be in charge of wet drills.
You and I will be responsible for the 1990 and 1992 AFL Grand Final DVD replays.
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All this talk of 727s has got me all nostalgic about my first ever flight as a kid! VH-ANF from Perth to Sydney ... (I still have the postcard I was given by the Captain around somewhere!). Would any of you learned gents know where the old girl ended up?
ANF was not the nicest of the 'LR' fleet, it always needed about 3 degrees of right rudder trim for some reason. It was bent somewhere and some of us called it 'The Crab'.Looking at the photogragh that might be just what the old girl needed to straighten her up! On the issue of postcards, I remember a small boy visiting the cockpit with his mum and asking about the escape tape panel. I flicked it open to show him the coiled rope and some rotten sod had stuck a 'Map of Tasmania' in there cut out from a Playboy Magazine. I will never forget the look on his mums face. She had him out of there and away from 'these terrible people' quick smart. Very embarrassing. If that was you and your mum Shortfinal737 tell her I am sorry.
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Somehow need to get a 727 painted n either AN or TN colours parked at either MEL or SYD just to remind one and all of a wonderful era, soon to finish for ever.
I reckon one at the new domestic terminal in PER and one at SYD, maybe painted Ansett on one side and TAA on the other.
Just need a few hundred thousand. Or we could all put our $950 chairman Rudd dollars into it.