Any Caravelle pilots?
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: North
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Caravelle needed a flight engineer, as did all jet airliners of that era. There was little automation and the FE was more than kept busy with handling the systems things. Plus this was aided by an FAA rule that all US aircraft with MTOW over 80,000lb (40,000kg) had to have three crew. This had been brought in to address a separate issue, of secondary carriers reducing DC-6 piston aircraft flight crews down from three to two, but stayed a requirement for some time. The first jet without an FE was the BAC One-Eleven, which was deliberately designed to come in under the FAA limit (just), as was the first DC-9-10, but then the requirement was changed.
If you compare the Caravelle and Comet flight decks, including of course the FE panel, you will find they look pretty much the same, all the knobs look familiar and are in familiar places. The yokes might even have been interchangeable. All apart from the number of throttles of course.
If you compare the Caravelle and Comet flight decks, including of course the FE panel, you will find they look pretty much the same, all the knobs look familiar and are in familiar places. The yokes might even have been interchangeable. All apart from the number of throttles of course.
Actually, Finnair was the first airline that did not have FE on Caravelles, and I believe SAS was the second.
I was a brand new "Third pilot", or CM3 (Crew member N.3), from 1970 to '72 in Alitalia.. there was no "Flight engineer" in the company Caravelle SE210 flight crew set-up on those years... The duties were basically to operate the landing gear and flaps, checking the overhead panel, the side electrical panel and monitoring the fueling on ground... once in a while we got a "sector"... my first one was Rome-Genoa... we were approaching GOA while I was still busy on fixing the seat-belt for...take off... But I did make some improvements since then... 
If I remember correctly , and with 12 years experience of Trident walkrounds [ albeit a long time ago ] .......... The Spey engine pylons had small placards announcing they were built under licence from Sud-Aviation . Might have been a straight swop for the Comet noses .
rgds condor .
rgds condor .
First ever jet flight was as a pax on Swissair Caravelle from LHR to ZRH. I took my bike along...
We took off from RW 28L (not 27L in those days)...
Remember looking out at the wing fence with Elmo’s fire on it and trying to figure out what town it was.
Later joined said airline just after Caravelles were replaced by DC-9.
We took off from RW 28L (not 27L in those days)...
Remember looking out at the wing fence with Elmo’s fire on it and trying to figure out what town it was.
Later joined said airline just after Caravelles were replaced by DC-9.
