TAA and the DC-9
Thread Starter
"Soo did the big girl from Eenie Weenie make a reply on this proon thingy", goes the early morning phone call. If he has print it off old chap and I will think up something to outsmart him, chuckles to himself.
"Somebody liked your description of Mr R Hawke", I reply. Which he replies Hawke is a "lots of expletives used, tosser".
But on a more serious note, said gentlemen wanted to know when the DC-9's actually left Australia and who operated them, and what paint scheme they carried in the period of 1988/9?
He remembers Australian talking about and planning an airline with the DC-9 fleet to serve the Gold Coast tourist market with flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Launceston. The pilots dispiute left Australian cash strapped and they shelved the idea and sold the airframes.
"Somebody liked your description of Mr R Hawke", I reply. Which he replies Hawke is a "lots of expletives used, tosser".
But on a more serious note, said gentlemen wanted to know when the DC-9's actually left Australia and who operated them, and what paint scheme they carried in the period of 1988/9?
He remembers Australian talking about and planning an airline with the DC-9 fleet to serve the Gold Coast tourist market with flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Launceston. The pilots dispiute left Australian cash strapped and they shelved the idea and sold the airframes.
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Aye Ess: re post 114
I was working on that nite on checkin at ool aport when the hijacker was checked in .The guy beside me checked him in on the last flt ool/bne on a friday nite. We all went home as it taxied and read about it the next day.It actually used runway 32 .P s to eastwest loco were you around ool at this time.
WHBM. Do not forget the B737-200A capabilities that could not be matched by the DC9-32. MEL-PER and MEL-DRW nonstop for starters. Year round CNS-BNE and BNE-MEL without baggage off-loads off the old Eagle Farm runway.
AN operated the B737-200A CNS-MEL-CNS, MEL-HTI-MEL as well as ASP from MEL and SYD. The DC9-32 could do none of this. With 6 hours endurance and the same engines as the B727-200 the B737-200A had stacks of passenger appeal and was partly responsible for AN enjoying approx. 56% of the 2 airline market at one stage. With 112 seats it enjoyed a competitive advantage over the DC9-32.
AN operated the B737-200A CNS-MEL-CNS, MEL-HTI-MEL as well as ASP from MEL and SYD. The DC9-32 could do none of this. With 6 hours endurance and the same engines as the B727-200 the B737-200A had stacks of passenger appeal and was partly responsible for AN enjoying approx. 56% of the 2 airline market at one stage. With 112 seats it enjoyed a competitive advantage over the DC9-32.
Of the 24 Australian DC-9s, 12 each with TAA and Ansett, 7 appear to be still flying on into 2009, and surprisingly 6 of these, three from each original carrier, are with the same operator, ABX, in DHL colours, in the USA (photo above).
For those who remember the old ships, Ansett's VH-CZA, CZB and CZF are now N946AX, 947AX and 949AX respectvely. Meanwhile TAA's VH-TJM, TJN and TJS are now N906AX, 907AX nad 944AX. The odd seventh aircraft is Ansett's VH-CZC, now YV118T with Aserca in Venezuela.
DHL are giving up their package network in the USA from January 30th 2009, so it is likely that all this fleet will shortly be making their last flights, as there seems no further market for DC-9s. Unfortunately DHL seem to have decided to give up when oil was $150 a barrel, bad news for a DC-9 hauling small packages, now it's $40.
For those who remember the old ships, Ansett's VH-CZA, CZB and CZF are now N946AX, 947AX and 949AX respectvely. Meanwhile TAA's VH-TJM, TJN and TJS are now N906AX, 907AX nad 944AX. The odd seventh aircraft is Ansett's VH-CZC, now YV118T with Aserca in Venezuela.
DHL are giving up their package network in the USA from January 30th 2009, so it is likely that all this fleet will shortly be making their last flights, as there seems no further market for DC-9s. Unfortunately DHL seem to have decided to give up when oil was $150 a barrel, bad news for a DC-9 hauling small packages, now it's $40.
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From a ground handling point of view,the 9 had it all. Its own front & rear stairs plus the baggage lockers could be easily accessed from the ground without the need for specialised conveyer belts or lifts.
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Wasn't it necessary to reduce the tyre pressure on the -9's to operate PH - PD sectors, due to the ACN at Hedland. Did they have the range to carry PD + 60 with all seats occupied?
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Teresa, that would have been Dave H, was it? If so, we weren't the best of mates for reasons not worth pursuing now. WRT the rest of your imaginative yarn, I know nothing! I do recall the instructors' reunions up Tamworth way where the real test was to drink a beer whilst hanging by your knees from the woolshed rafters, at the same time p.........
Hang on, I'll be ejected if I elaborate further.
Yes, I joined the civvy world in a manner of speaking - 25 years after the aforementioned pranks I was examiner B737, flying the line with AN. This was in the days when examiners were required to keep current so as to properly assess simulators.
Hang on, I'll be ejected if I elaborate further.
Yes, I joined the civvy world in a manner of speaking - 25 years after the aforementioned pranks I was examiner B737, flying the line with AN. This was in the days when examiners were required to keep current so as to properly assess simulators.
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He is still going Gruesome, his undercarriage is shot, but his whisky arm is still working. He was recently at the bash for all Commanding Officers at Richmond recently. There is a bar named after him in DRW as you are probably aware. (I hope someone names a bar after me, when I go that bar in the sky).
It would be fantastic if at least one of the remaining nines that are airworthy be purchased, and brought to Oz, and be put back into its original livery for display...(even Longreach with its dry heat). Maybe a pipedream, but you never know.
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The big girlie from Eeenie Weenie replieth
Hi Stationair
Please mention to your retired TN Sales Manager mate that this big girls blouse probably knew him, and was indeed born a TN airline brat, son of an Engines LAME who then became a Class 1 Accountant on the 4th floor of Fawlty Towers in Franklin St.
I started in Res in the same building in '75 and transferred to Traffic at Burnie/Wynyard and would have had a job for life if the chinless wonders in the above location had not decided to cut the F27 routes and swing in Eenie Weenie.
By then TN was a paper tiger on it's way to having to be handed to QF to survive. We used to love getting the Sales dudes through res and then through traffic on their "Management Trainee" runs. What a waste of time and effort that was, when the 2 Airline Agreement meant they were basically squabbling over 1% of market share. That 1% was worth rather a lot though in the scheme of things.
I was very sad to leave TN and was to some degree shunned by those who chose to keep the faith, but never regretted hanging my hat on EW. If the silver slimebag had not delayed deregulation to suit his greaseball mate and the F100's had been delivered it may have been a very different story.
If your mate can honestly say he was a contributing part of a loyal and hardworking workforce that took the airline he worked for from turboprop to jet and more than quadrupled its network and uplift, good on him. If he can't, then he was just another one of the passengers at TN. God knows, there were a lot of them, and some of the detrius is high up in QF these days.
Above all, the profusion of good and true airmen and good judges of aeroplanes did very well for TN through the 50's and 60's. The Government was pushing for them to take the HS Trident (for Gawd's sake - a booster turbine to get airborne?) and the BAC111, and the Sud Caravell was even in the mix, but common sense prevailed with a lot of fighting!! The DC9-30 - later the Super 30 with the Super 80 interior, and that happened all over with the A300, with pushes to grab the L1011 and DC-10. The Bowyang, the A300B4 and the DC9-30 were just the right fleet.
Best all
It is nice to know I can still raise the occasional eyebrow.
EWL
Please mention to your retired TN Sales Manager mate that this big girls blouse probably knew him, and was indeed born a TN airline brat, son of an Engines LAME who then became a Class 1 Accountant on the 4th floor of Fawlty Towers in Franklin St.
I started in Res in the same building in '75 and transferred to Traffic at Burnie/Wynyard and would have had a job for life if the chinless wonders in the above location had not decided to cut the F27 routes and swing in Eenie Weenie.
By then TN was a paper tiger on it's way to having to be handed to QF to survive. We used to love getting the Sales dudes through res and then through traffic on their "Management Trainee" runs. What a waste of time and effort that was, when the 2 Airline Agreement meant they were basically squabbling over 1% of market share. That 1% was worth rather a lot though in the scheme of things.
I was very sad to leave TN and was to some degree shunned by those who chose to keep the faith, but never regretted hanging my hat on EW. If the silver slimebag had not delayed deregulation to suit his greaseball mate and the F100's had been delivered it may have been a very different story.
If your mate can honestly say he was a contributing part of a loyal and hardworking workforce that took the airline he worked for from turboprop to jet and more than quadrupled its network and uplift, good on him. If he can't, then he was just another one of the passengers at TN. God knows, there were a lot of them, and some of the detrius is high up in QF these days.
Above all, the profusion of good and true airmen and good judges of aeroplanes did very well for TN through the 50's and 60's. The Government was pushing for them to take the HS Trident (for Gawd's sake - a booster turbine to get airborne?) and the BAC111, and the Sud Caravell was even in the mix, but common sense prevailed with a lot of fighting!! The DC9-30 - later the Super 30 with the Super 80 interior, and that happened all over with the A300, with pushes to grab the L1011 and DC-10. The Bowyang, the A300B4 and the DC9-30 were just the right fleet.
Best all
It is nice to know I can still raise the occasional eyebrow.
EWL
Last edited by Eastwest Loco; 7th Jan 2009 at 10:44.
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Ah nostalgia.
300kts downwind at LT for runway 32L. Turn base with everything hanging out. Stable and spooled up by 600 ft AGL on final.
300kts at Glenfield for straight in on 07 at Sydney. Even the management pilots did it occasionally to impress a callow young first officer with the capabilities.
300kts downwind at LT for runway 32L. Turn base with everything hanging out. Stable and spooled up by 600 ft AGL on final.
300kts at Glenfield for straight in on 07 at Sydney. Even the management pilots did it occasionally to impress a callow young first officer with the capabilities.
I was taking the broader view of the benefits of not having to use a 727 on these sectors, compared to the overall capital cost of replacing all the DC-9s with 737s, which was a very large investment. That's what I was considering to be marginal, which Ansett did and TAA didn't, the overall revenue benefit compared to the overall cost.
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Great thread - Yes the 733 could go a lot further than the 9 but with no where near the style!
See the pic in post 119, the bottom of the overhead panel was the warning light cluster (forget the offical name - will never forget the "AC crosstie relay"). When the Master Caution or Warning came on you just needed to consult the warning display (grouped by system) and work your way through it, unlike the 733 where illumination of the master caution sent you neck craning around the panels to find which system had set it off.
This was an early version of EICAS/ECAM and typical of the 9's leading edge technology.
Some one asked in an earlier post about Port Headland, The 9 was used for CNS-GV-DRW(o'night)-PD-PER (o'night) Deadhead home to MEL in the 727 in First Class
or v.v. Ansett WA owned the West so we we just there to p*ss them off.CNS-GV was fun, max fuel in the wet with GTE as Alternate, lost CNS VOR at 100 nm, backtrack on Kowanyama NDB over the Gulf until you picked up GV VOR. Quite strange sitting in an airliner with no supplemantary nav systems, flags on all your navaids and water as far as the eye can see. Then descent OCTA mixing with all the MAF C206's dodging CB's around GV. About 10 mins loiter time and if you didn't get in, then off to GTE where you were generally stuck - see earlier post.
We also had a procedure, as I recall, where the GPWS could be deactivated "in VMC" allowing a low crossing of the ridge and a tight right base for CNS15 when inbound from GV.
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Delamination, the light cluster was the "Annunciator Panel". Also,fellow DC9 drivers,remember the rudder trim knob? It had a small removeable panel in the centre which small objects & little notes could be hidden for any subsequent crew's amusement......professional pilots or overgrown schoolboys??