The way we were - Ansett, TAA, Qantas

[Fantome]

Although not in the title of this thread there were 2 other Airlines that sadly, very sadly for me and a lot of others, are no longer around.
Compass Airlines, one of the best places I ever worked.

The mods are not that hardline about thread drift, airsupport.

If this morphs into a bit of Compass and Bryan Grey nostalgia, no harm there.

Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday May 10, 2001
by Ben Sandilands

Aviation underdog, 1929-2001.

The father of domestic airline deregulation in Australia, Bryan Grey, who died this week, was considering another tilt at the established carriers in 1997 before cancer began to take its toll.

The public will remember him most for Compass Airlines, the first carrier to take off after the repeal of the laws dividing the skies between Ansett and Australian Airlines (formerly TAA).

Airbus Industrie remembers him as the first individual to put his hand in his pocket to personally pay a multimillion-dollar deposit on a wide-bodied jet.

The bureaucracy in Canberra has yet to forget his persistence in 1982 when, as the new owner of East-West Airlines, he flew against the might of the Ansett and TAA duopoly through a legal loophole that allowed him to compete on the Sydney-Melbourne route by landing, ever so briefly, at Albury along the way.

His friends and associates will never forget him giving up the executive directorship of Ansett as the third in charge and heir designate after Rupert Murdoch and Sir Reginald Ansett to pursue the common touch by buying East-West.

And can Collingwood supporters ever forget a wintry mid-'80s day when Grey offered to bet $1million that their club would never win a flag in the 20th century? (It did, but nobody could raise the money and put it in escrow.)

Bryan Grey was born in Melbourne and had a working-class childhood. The Marist Brothers created a scholarship especially for him after recognising a gifted mind that should not be forced out of school by hardship.

Reg Ansett sent him as one of his proteges to work through the ranks of the Ansett operation in Papua New Guinea, where Grey became the general manager of Talair and then of Air Niugini before his move to the highest levels with Ansett in Australia.

Grey was shattered to learn after he sold East-West Airlines that it was almost immediately sold on to Ansett, which ended its flirtation with no-frills fares and bureaucracy-defying attacks on restrictive aviation rules.

Compass was to put things right, but it lasted only a year before the jets were repossessed in December 1991. Less than a year later, Sir Peter Abeles, in charge of Ansett, said in an interview: ``If he'd had $150million, we couldn't have afforded to chase him." But the first Compass had only $60million. Compass spread itself across Australia and was credited with dragging the tourism industry of Far North Queensland back from the brink of ruin by stimulating the market after the pilots' dispute of 1989.

Grey lambasted government for deregulating the skies but not the airport terminals. A master headline-maker, he will be remembered for urging his customers to join Australian Airlines' Flight Deck club rooms so they could be comfortable while waiting for his flights, which used the same terminals, and for pointing the finger at ``other" airline employees equipped with hand counters, recording the numbers of passengers boarding his flights.

He loved his property at Hamilton near the Grampians, and was a dedicated racehorse owner and breeder who followed the Vain bloodline.

He was predeceased by his first wife, Jean, and is survived by their six children, 19 grandchildren and his second wife, Heather, who kept his spirit flying as the cancer took hold.

Grey's funeral is on Saturday in Hamilton, the town from which his early mentor, Reginald Myles Ansett, launched Ansett in 1936, overcoming the law against competing against Victoria's railways by giving away the flight for free but charging for the piece of fruit that went with it.

2001 Sydney Morning Herald

[airsupport]

Well it should be okay, both Airlines were part of ''the way we were'' just they were not in the title, same would apply to East-West.

[airsupport]

Just found a better photo of that first flight of Southern Cross (Compass 2) MD80, arriving CNS.

[airsupport]

Just spent hours going through all my old photo albums, and I promise Mods these will be the last I post here however I think (hope) these will be of interest to many here.

They ARE about ''the way we were'' and are relative to Ansett, photos from when we were at Boeing in the early 1980s for the Ansett B767s.

While I am sure many here have been to Boeing you can not always even then get some of these photos, we had special security passes to take these photos.

The first one is not relative to the Ansett 767s, it is the original Boeing Factory, was a museum then, not sure if it is still there.



This is a B767 fuselage that after it was constructed was pressurised and depressurised (I forget how many times) but far in excess of a normal aircrafts lifetime until it failed, it failed where those red marks are near the rear door.



This is another fuselage and set of wings on this one, the loads were applied to the wings up and down again more times than in a normal aircrafts lifetime, as far as I remember they did not fail at all.



A couple of photos from inside the factory of one of the Ansett 767 being assembled, please excuse the quality of these photos but I did not have a very good camera and they did not exactly encourage photos.

[airsupport]

The way we were, Ansett...............

Apart from the photos I have posted here, this is all I have left from Ansett.



Clock presented to me by Ansett for 25 years service, back in about 1988, and yes it still works.

[Stationair8]

Didn't Reg Ansett take on Qantas at one stage and run Townsville to Singapore?

[john_tullamarine]

Just been searching to see if I could find any Compass ads

That looks like one Captain Alan S in the first frame ?

[clotted]

Didn't Reg Ansett take on Qantas at one stage and run Townsville to Singapore?

Indeed he did.
It was against AFAP policy at the time and turned out to be one component that precipitated the QF pilots to break away to form AIPA. It was called the AFAP route protection policy.
It should have been called the "look after number 1 policy" or "look after your own ambitions policy".

[nitpicker330]

During 1981 Ansett and TAA ran Hobart- Christchurch once a week each for a while too using 727-200's and under Qantas flight numbers.

The Age - Google News Archive Search

[greybeard]

In he 70s and 80s MMA operated PHE DPS and DRW DPS with F-28s on QF flight numbers and call signs as did Garuda on the other week.

only the big Q could go international it seemed.

[airsupport]

Back in the day we (Ansett) operated some International flights out of BNE for a while, wish I had some photos of those flights, as apart from having to use Qantas flight numbers the aircraft had to have Qantas decals on it near where the pax boarded.

[nitpicker330]

That Age newspaper Google article mentions Ables was upset that Qantas were using Garuda for PHD DPS and not an Aussie registered Aircraft. Ditto BNE POM as well.

[Fris B. Fairing]

Who said we couldn't play together?



Air Niugini flight
Ansett aeroplane
Handled by Qantas
Loaded by TAA staff using Qantas equipment

VH-RMX operating an Air Niugini charter from Brisbane to Port Moresby on 12MAY80.

[airsupport]

A couple of others from ''the way we were'' involving one of my favourites, DC9s.

Not sure exactly when it was now, from memory it was VH-CZD, it operated International flights for Air Vanuatu. Aircraft was painted in Air Vanuatu colours on one side and Ansett on the other, and YES it was often parked with the ''applicable" side towards the terminal.



The other is the now also sadly long gone IPEC DC9s, certainly the way I was for many years, here in BNE and flew with them on numerous charters all around the Pacific, mainly Honiara but also many other places including PNG, Nauru and New Caledonia.

[airsupport]

I am surprised nobody has posted anything of East-West, surely they would qualify, I do not have any photos of their aircraft as I never worked for them, did have a photo of one of the Ansett B727s in East-West colours but I cannot find it.

I just went searching for photos on the Internet, I guess everyone here knew but I had never even thought of it, I was surprised to find some of the photos I have posted on this thread are now there for all to see.

[Fris B. Fairing]

airsupport

This thread am the Internet!

Think of it this way. Your photos are preserved for future generations to admire. Feel better?

Rgds

[airsupport]

Not really worried, just that I did not realise that would happen.

It does not identify anyone, just that the photos are on pprune.org

[Propstop]

Damn you Airsupport... you must stop all this reminiscing and photos as I am going misty eyed over the wonderful days gone by, and as I am only a couple of years younger than you I have also seen what a genteel era we grew up in.
TAA was a great place to work and the apprenticeship was the best grounding a LAME could ever have. I know I have used all these skills taught over the years and in some very dodgy places in the world.
What a great thread.

[airsupport]

I am going misty eyed over the wonderful days gone by, and as I am only a couple of years younger than you I have also seen what a genteel era we grew up in.

TAA was a great place to work and the apprenticeship was the best grounding a LAME could ever have. I know I have used all these skills taught over the years and in some very dodgy places in the world.

Me too Propstop........

Sounds like we were/are very similar, except I was an Apprentice with Ansett, never been with TAA or Qantas, and like you those skills taught have helped me in some very remote parts of the World.

Things really were different and better back then, everyone helped each other especially at the smaller ports, I spent a few years in TSV way back in the 1970s, us (Ansett) and TAA had flights basically running side by side and we competed with each other to turnround as quickly as possible (safely) and be first out, however when either of us had any problems with our Aircraft as soon as you got yours out we would go and help the other guy, something I do not think is done now.

Great times................

[Old Fella]

Arrogance within the Flight Deck

It has been very interesting reading and watching many of the posts on this thread. I was disappointed to read the comments of Centaurus regarding the "frosty" atmosphere encountered by his young friend. In my experience of aviation, over fifty years in total including many years as a Flight Engineer in both the military and civilian environments, I have rarely encountered other crew members with a "superior" attitude. Those whom did have a higher opinion of themselves than of others more often than not were loners who did not enjoy the friendship of others. Indeed, most of those "superior beings" whilst having undoubted piloting skills were the least skilled in encouraging those of lesser rank or experience and generally were a pain in the backside to work with.

I have many reasons to look back on the "Good old Days" as being great old days.