Shorts 360 Ex-Flight Crew Required
 

Hi there,

I'm writing an article looking at the history of the Shorts 360 to mark the 40th anniversary of its first flight.

I was hoping to possibly speak to any ex-360 flight crew to get a pilots eye perspective about what the aircraft was like to fly.

If anyone would be willing to assist please drop me a DM for more info.

Thanks in advance.

Do you need specifically Shorts 360 flight crew - bearing in mind that the 330 was on the same Type Rating ?

Hi
 

PM sent...

Yes, I can understand why the differences course - to prevent all the reports of "one tail is missing" on your walkaround. :O

Nice aeroplane in good weather. Don't even ask about icing!!

Yeah.
Sheds are fine places for the undiscerning to inhabit in summer...

EX Jersey 330 + 360...... PM sent👍

This is not a criticism - I also have always referred to the type as a Shorts 330 or 360, but if you are writing an article about the aircraft, reading the entry on Wikipedia it appears that it should correctly be referred to as a Short 330 or Short 360

Type data sheet says "SHORT SD3-60"

The Irish Concorde.

As always, Wikipedia needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. :O

"Shorts" is/was the usual contraction for the manufacturer Short Brothers (of whom there were 3, hence the plural) or, for a time, Short Brothers and Harland. For example this 1947 ad:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c6892e56f2.jpg

Confusingly, up to the 1960s, its products were usually prefixed by the manufacturer name in the singular (Short Stirling, Short Sunderland, Short Skyvan, etc), with type designations typically starting S/SA/SB/SC.

That continued in the certification designations of the commuter aircraft in the 1970s, hence Short SD3-30 and SD3-60, but for marketing purposes those were considered a bit of a mouthful, hence the more snappy Shorts 330 and Shorts 360 (note the plural in the name). Pretty well all marketing materials used these terms, whereas anything to do with airworthiness used the Type Certificate designations

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ad716c4322.jpg


"Short 330" and "Short 360" are neither one thing nor the other and I've never seen those in any authoritative source.

Short Skyvan? The 330 and 360 were more of a Long Skyvan...

Thanks for that, I will happily go back to referring to them as Shorts🙂

(However, I won’t go as far as referring to a previous employer of mine as “Bristows” - that always grates on my ear, and I was always told that Alan Bristow insisted on it being referred to in the singular)

I often thought "Shorts" referred to the CC who were all of less than average height on every flight I took in them....................

When the first aircraft were delivered to US customers, there was an ad campaign featuring cabin crew wearing t-shirts emblazoned "Come and look inside my Shorts".

Coming back from Belfast to Luton on a Capital 360 back in 1989, the pilot came on the blower to announce "We've got some weather ahead, if we go up you turn blue and I get icing, if we go down we get turbulence and you turn green!". We went down and we did!

Which is why it was known as the Vomit Comet.

360
 

I absolutely loved my time on the Shed.
My first commercial type so nothing to compare it to, but I can categorically say it flew a great deal better than it looked.
My outfit still had one 330 on the fleet but I never had the opportunity to find out how it differed.

Happy times from a different era, sadly.

One (well, two) of the few types where each pilot has his/her own cockpit entry door. :O

Made out of the box the Twin Otter came in.