TAA and the DC-9
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: gold coast QLD australia
Age: 86
Posts: 1,345
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yer know Tinpis, I could never understand why QF did not use Miss Colins on the original 100/200 747s instead of that cheap crap that they bought from OS somewhere. Anybody know why??
This thread must be bringing tears to us oldies here. God how I miss real aviation, noise, style & brute manhood, not a shieler in sight
Ahhhh those where the days
'TG' tell us more of the good 'ole days please
I enjoy yr posts but don't let the Mods know that will ya
Wmk2
Ahhhh those where the days
'TG' tell us more of the good 'ole days please
I enjoy yr posts but don't let the Mods know that will yaWmk2
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Here. Over here.
Posts: 189
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Mmmmm. DC9s.....
Brings back memories of the days of parallel scheduling and the great Australian air race where we would taxy off blocks with the front stairs still retracting so as to get pole position for take off.
Remember the attempts on the world speed record from Sydney to Canberra?
If conditions were right you could get an intersection departure off rwy 16 next to the terminals then flat-chat out through the heads and down to Canberra for a straight in on rwy 17. I seem to remember having a personal best of 18 minutes flight time and 22 minutes block-to-block. None of this wimpy 250 knots below 10000' in those days!
It was the best handling pilot's aeroplane I ever had the pleasure of flying.
Brings back memories of the days of parallel scheduling and the great Australian air race where we would taxy off blocks with the front stairs still retracting so as to get pole position for take off.
Remember the attempts on the world speed record from Sydney to Canberra?
If conditions were right you could get an intersection departure off rwy 16 next to the terminals then flat-chat out through the heads and down to Canberra for a straight in on rwy 17. I seem to remember having a personal best of 18 minutes flight time and 22 minutes block-to-block. None of this wimpy 250 knots below 10000' in those days!
It was the best handling pilot's aeroplane I ever had the pleasure of flying.
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: gold coast QLD australia
Age: 86
Posts: 1,345
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Oh God, those photo's make my heart ache, could ever a aircraft bring tears to your eyes like that little girl. My missus says I should have married one and be done with it. Just jealous. The only engine failure I ever had on takeoff, was in one out of CBR on a wet and rainy friday nite, full of pollies going home to the wife or girlfriend, and she ingested some of her own tyre in the port donk. Just passed V1 I got over Lake George and had a quick chat with the F/O and we decided a quick run back in and back to the Hyatt for a drink was in order, did she let us down, no, she pulled like a trojan on one donk, and behaved like the lady she was, the pollies of course complained, I should have dumped the lot in Lake George, (but not enough water to do the job) and who would sacrifice such a lady for a bunch of pollies, ( I think Keating was there ) but I was immune to the bastards by then (if you came out of the flight deck he would look at you, like you were something found on the bottom of a shoe). Wet and miserable here on the GC this arvo, I don't know who I should cry over most the "pocket rocket" or the cricket. 
Thread Starter
The reason for the question, I was looking at a book on the DC-9 in a secondhand bookshop in Melbourne, and the book went through the development of the aircraft and then listed operators of the type. In the Australasian section it showed some photos of both Ansett and TAA aircraft including the one painted as Coralislander. In the text it mentioned that TAA had retained some DC-9's up until 1989, and planned to use them as apart of a low cost airline when derugulation started the following year on certain routes including Australia most popular tourist route.
Were Australian Airlines planning something similar to the Airlink operation that they started with National Jet, to run on the Gold Coast route out of Sydney and Melbourne?
Keep in mind that Australian Airlines also had an operation in Cairns called Australian Regional Link that operated DC-3, Fokker Friendships and Twin Otters in the late 1980's.
Were Australian Airlines planning something similar to the Airlink operation that they started with National Jet, to run on the Gold Coast route out of Sydney and Melbourne?
Keep in mind that Australian Airlines also had an operation in Cairns called Australian Regional Link that operated DC-3, Fokker Friendships and Twin Otters in the late 1980's.
Evertonian
That second last TN 722 is one sweet photo Buzzy!
What makes you think the DC-10-30 is ex EAL? (Oh how we had fun with those prayer wheels...!)
What makes you think the DC-10-30 is ex EAL?
(Oh how we had fun with those prayer wheels...!)
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Mydadsbag
Posts: 1,113
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Glad you like it Buster!
Those last two photos were taken from the first 747 built over Mt. Rainier in Washington State just prior to delivery. I was lucky to be aboard the ferry flight in 1978 to Australia, albeit as a pretty young tacker
Those last two photos were taken from the first 747 built over Mt. Rainier in Washington State just prior to delivery. I was lucky to be aboard the ferry flight in 1978 to Australia, albeit as a pretty young tacker
Thread Starter
Nice shot of the main apron at Essendon, wouldn't the local anti airport mob be complaining about noise if you had the F27, DC-9 and B727 operating in and out of their today.
Anyone know the number of passenger movements out of Essendon in the last year of operation?
Anyone know the number of passenger movements out of Essendon in the last year of operation?
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 161
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It is a fact that there were talks about using the Australian DC-9s on some sort of low-cost operation in the late 80's when deregulation (foreshadowed in 1987) was approaching. Never got to more than "what ifs" as far as I know.
That aside......when it entered TAA service I reckon it was a least as far ahead of anything else flying as the 777 and A380 are now....a sweet machine from either seat. And the elder brother MD-80 just as wonderful.
That aside......when it entered TAA service I reckon it was a least as far ahead of anything else flying as the 777 and A380 are now....a sweet machine from either seat. And the elder brother MD-80 just as wonderful.
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: gold coast QLD australia
Age: 86
Posts: 1,345
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Variable out of CBR, Dog One, depending on conditions. You young turks must wonder what the hell we are on about, with your maggots, and dugongs, and glass cockpits, but (and you are going to have trouble with this) we came off DC3s/4s/6s, twotters, fockers etc, and suddenly confronted with this beautiful little noisy beast, well, the scramble to get endorsed was like a bunch of schoolboys in a brothel. She would be a dinosaur to you blokes, but every so often a aircraft comes along that is for pilots, and she was one of them, like the B707. I saw one in Oshkosh in the 90's painted in shiny black, all over, belonging to some sheik, I could have happily died and gone to heaven then, and she did about three touch and goes, and I saw bloody tough old American airline pilots, and old combat pilots, trying to hide their emotions, I didn't bother. They say that the Mustang is the greatest Aircraft ever, followed by the Spitty, and the DC3, probably not much augument there, but jeez, she has to be in the first five, ask any pilot that has flown her, and watch his eyes glaze over and don't bother trying to move the smile from his face.
She was an absolute sports car and ATC knew that and would vector us around other aircraft as they knew her (and our) capabilities
Can never understand why the septics called it a diesel9
Photos: McDonnell Douglas DC-9-33CF Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net
You older codgers may like to look at this;
TAA MUSEUM 25 Year Club Home Page
They are about to do more work on it in the new year.
Can never understand why the septics called it a diesel9
Photos: McDonnell Douglas DC-9-33CF Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.netYou older codgers may like to look at this;
TAA MUSEUM 25 Year Club Home Page
They are about to do more work on it in the new year.
Old mate of mine was on the DC-9s. He died last year and when I ran into Jack Curtis at Pay's funeral, Jack said "Ah Bill! DId my line check on the DC-9..."
Old Bill loved the DC-9... and had cut his teeth on Catalinas during the war.
In the last 4 years I have lost a few WWII pilots close to me incl. a Lanc pilot, B-24 pilot, Spit driver and a couple of well known P-40 sqn leaders.
If you have a WWII driver nearby, spend a couple of hours with him over new year... not many left!
Old Bill loved the DC-9... and had cut his teeth on Catalinas during the war.
In the last 4 years I have lost a few WWII pilots close to me incl. a Lanc pilot, B-24 pilot, Spit driver and a couple of well known P-40 sqn leaders.
If you have a WWII driver nearby, spend a couple of hours with him over new year... not many left!
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: melbourne
Posts: 90
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ipec ran them into the 90s didnt they?
She was an absolute sports car and ATC knew that and would vector us around other aircraft as they knew her (and our) capabilities
The world was simpler place then, when all there was to 'flow', were 727's, DC9's and the friendly's.
Love the photos guys, thanks. There is a good one somewhere, taken from ML TWR, of two 9's looking at each other on the same segment of twy A, after one of my old colleagues got it a tad wrong. Tugs please!
Join Date: Jun 2001
Posts: 1,451
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The -9 was a - maybe THE - classic case of "if it looks good, it will fly well".
For this little black duck at least, a DC-9 cockpit at night, especilly with the floods set off and only the integral instrument lights on was about as near to orgasmic as I was ever likey to get without a very co-operative and naked young lady close at hand.
I went for the -9 to the 72, and (although I learned to love the 72) it was positively agricultural compared to a -9.
Ansett's first two -9's (CZA and B) had open overhead lockers not unlike a 1960's tour bus. I can't recall there being too many problems with pax carry on bags falling out in turbulence, but do recall that the open overhead lockers allowed for great sport on turnarounds, when one pilot would 'casually' get himself down the back to trap one hapless FA in between him and the other pilot at the front of the cabin. (FA? We called them hosties back then.) A quick flick and a hoist from the two pilots would land the hostie on her back in the overhead locker, generally within a minute or two of the pax boarding - and there was no getting out without help.
These days both pilots would be up on assault and sexual harrassment charges.
For this little black duck at least, a DC-9 cockpit at night, especilly with the floods set off and only the integral instrument lights on was about as near to orgasmic as I was ever likey to get without a very co-operative and naked young lady close at hand.
I went for the -9 to the 72, and (although I learned to love the 72) it was positively agricultural compared to a -9.
Ansett's first two -9's (CZA and B) had open overhead lockers not unlike a 1960's tour bus. I can't recall there being too many problems with pax carry on bags falling out in turbulence, but do recall that the open overhead lockers allowed for great sport on turnarounds, when one pilot would 'casually' get himself down the back to trap one hapless FA in between him and the other pilot at the front of the cabin. (FA? We called them hosties back then.) A quick flick and a hoist from the two pilots would land the hostie on her back in the overhead locker, generally within a minute or two of the pax boarding - and there was no getting out without help.
These days both pilots would be up on assault and sexual harrassment charges.