TAA and the DC-9
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,345
Likes: 1
From: gold coast QLD australia
Givelda, it makes me homesick. Nothing I flew from the Tiger Moth, yes the Tiger Moth, to the 747 makes me turn to water like that picture of the "liddle girlies" (as our italian LAME used to call her) flight deck, How lucky were we. They can stick their glass cockpits, what memories. 
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 374
Likes: 0
From: Brisbane
Hmm Chimbu... bet that FO's trousers don't fit him now.
The Melbourne nine simulator... remember the kitchen chair the instructor sat on between the victims.
During my endorsement at one of those bloody awful back of the clock sims, the other F.O and I were real tired.
On one take off, a wing started dropping and I shoved in rudder.
More rudder
More rudder and LOTS of aileron.
We shook and staggered into the air and I'm tryin' to identify the engine and keep the bugger climbing.
Me mate's having trouble identifying the engine and watching the flight instruments at the same time, callin' heading, heading, speed, speed.
Ray Donaldson, our instructor (We were the orange and brown mob... THAT'S why it was back of the clock!) fell backwards off that silly little chair from laughing so much.
Well.... the way she was flying , with full crossed controls; it felt like an engine failure.
What about the crappy visual display. Just lots of pinpoints of lights to outline the features.
At the end of our sims, if we had a good Checkie, we could do a bit of free flyin'.
Even though the visual display was pretty basic, we still felt that we were screaming up the freeway below the streetlights and then at the end snaped into a vertical bank to fit between the hi rises.
Those hirises always looked like the pinpoints of light were the windows, so you had to allow a bit more room from them for the edge of the building.
Good immaginations!
We WERE from the last generation to be able to play with a lump of scrap wood and believe it was a truck, tractor, grader or train as we played in the dirt under the house.
The Melbourne nine simulator... remember the kitchen chair the instructor sat on between the victims.
During my endorsement at one of those bloody awful back of the clock sims, the other F.O and I were real tired.
On one take off, a wing started dropping and I shoved in rudder.
More rudder
More rudder and LOTS of aileron.
We shook and staggered into the air and I'm tryin' to identify the engine and keep the bugger climbing.
Me mate's having trouble identifying the engine and watching the flight instruments at the same time, callin' heading, heading, speed, speed.
Ray Donaldson, our instructor (We were the orange and brown mob... THAT'S why it was back of the clock!) fell backwards off that silly little chair from laughing so much.
Well.... the way she was flying , with full crossed controls; it felt like an engine failure.
What about the crappy visual display. Just lots of pinpoints of lights to outline the features.
At the end of our sims, if we had a good Checkie, we could do a bit of free flyin'.
Even though the visual display was pretty basic, we still felt that we were screaming up the freeway below the streetlights and then at the end snaped into a vertical bank to fit between the hi rises.
Those hirises always looked like the pinpoints of light were the windows, so you had to allow a bit more room from them for the edge of the building.
Good immaginations!
We WERE from the last generation to be able to play with a lump of scrap wood and believe it was a truck, tractor, grader or train as we played in the dirt under the house.
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 484
Likes: 2
From: Brisbane
That old DC9 sim must have trained thousands of pilots over the years. The smell as one entered the black,evil hole was of sweat & fear.On the FO's side where the control column entered the floor,the rubber surround had a hole in it,which was handy when the mind was starting to think things were going dangerously bad,the eyes could just glance down and be reassured to see the brightly lit concrete floor.
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 2,449
Likes: 291
From: Australia
When did TAA/Australian run the last DC-9 ground school and endorsements for pilots then?
Did FO's get upgraded to DC-9 command in the last few years of operation?
Did TAA/Australian do training for the Ipec pilots upgrading to the DC-9?
Did FO's get upgraded to DC-9 command in the last few years of operation?
Did TAA/Australian do training for the Ipec pilots upgrading to the DC-9?
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 408
Likes: 0
From: Australia
Le Rhone:
You just have to talk to the TAA Museum guys. When Qantas took over the lpace they threw all of the TAA stuff into big dumpsters. Most of the stuff in the museum was rescued. How much more stuff was lost may never be known.
Have a look at the Qantas website and see how much of their history page is (or more accurately, isn't) dedicated to TAA. An insignificant sideshow in their eyes one suspects.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,204
Likes: 26
From: Australia
On the FO's side where the control column entered the floor,the rubber surround had a hole in it,which was handy when the mind was starting to think things were going dangerously bad,the eyes could just glance down and be reassured to see the brightly lit concrete floor.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,204
Likes: 26
From: Australia
Ray Donaldson, our instructor (We were the orange and brown mob... THAT'S why it was back of the clock!) fell backwards off that silly little chair from laughing so much.
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,345
Likes: 1
From: gold coast QLD australia
God, I had forgotten about the smell of the sim, but never forgotten the smell of the actual aircraft, no pansy bloody smell, just always had a nice sort of engine smell, and I know I am becoming pathetic, but didn't her donks always have a good odor, all nice and black (none of this enviromental crap) as we all know the 9 didnt give a pigs ar#e about the butterflys and the polar bears, there was no doubt, you could hear and see her coming and going, screaming, with great trails of black smoke at times, a greenies nightmare really, but could make your hair stand on end. A real blokes toy.
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 484
Likes: 2
From: Brisbane
Yes Teresa Green the DC9 aircraft did have a nice homely smell as soon as you entered the front door. A mix of aeroplane airfreshener,F/A perfume & freshly brewed coffee. Enter the flightdeck,close the door,slide into the comfy seat & breath a sigh of contentment.....I'm home.
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 1,450
Likes: 3
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the control column. The -9 yoke simply had to be the nearest thing to a glove I've come across in all the types I've ever flown. It was as though some bright designer had taken my hand and made a shape for it to fit around... err.. like a sort of reverse glove. The 727 yoke is a slapped together piece of tubular metal in comparison - and the 777 not a hell of a lot better.
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 72
Likes: 0
From: Gold Coast, Australia
DC 9 sim at Matthews Avenue
Memories Sixtiesrelic,
Last I saw of the old sim was when contractors (expanding the centre) broke through a large wall to remove it, around 1990. It was then trucked to RMIT for their 'aviation department' where it lived for the rest of the nineties. Wonder where it is now?
Chimbu
Last I saw of the old sim was when contractors (expanding the centre) broke through a large wall to remove it, around 1990. It was then trucked to RMIT for their 'aviation department' where it lived for the rest of the nineties. Wonder where it is now?
Chimbu
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 59
Likes: 1
From: Melbourne
THE Sim
One of earliest memories as a young'n is visiting that sim while Dad was putting some poor bugger through the wringer or being wrung himself 
(I was only 6 at the time and the memory is a bit fuzzy). I remember the stairs being a bit high for comfort.
Dad liked the old Diesel - think he was on it for about 2 years before the Boeing.
(I was only 6 at the time and the memory is a bit fuzzy). I remember the stairs being a bit high for comfort.Dad liked the old Diesel - think he was on it for about 2 years before the Boeing.
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 484
Likes: 2
From: Brisbane
Chimbu,I found the DC9 simulator! It's at the Moorabin Air Museum. Check it out http://www.aarg.com.au/ipix_images/VirtualTour9.htm