Jet Pilot
 

Good Afternoon All:

A fellow retiree sent me this very good video produced by the National Film Board of Canada called Jet Pilot produced in 1964.

It brought me back to a much gentler time of travel where people dressed up for travel as it was considered luxury at the time not the mass transit that is forced on us in the ever increasing race to the bottom.

One f the most interesting sounds was the start of the Rolls Royce Conway engines when the air cart spun the engines to life. I was also intrigued by the station turn around time when the crew could sample tropical fruit in the shade of a resort before the next flight. In todays aviation world you are lucky if you have time to grab a coffee between flight planning and pre-flight.

https://www.nfb.ca/film/jet-pilot/

That is a lot of snow.

The captain is rocking that 'stache.

An actual weather briefing... wouldn't that be something.

She sounds like a mighty beast coming to life. :)

That runway at Montego Bay hasn't changed much.

I too, am envious of a turn time like that one.

Nice share.

Awesome clip, thanks for sharing it! :ok:

I remember that James Michener DC-8 preflight where you rang every bell and tested every light. And ran the trim to the limits each time. :rolleyes:

I was a little surprised that engine anti-ice was left off on the after start checklist.

The plane in the film appears to be CF-TJJ, a DC-8-43 powered by Rolls Conways. It was later scrapped, possibly in the 1980's, as N8021V.

NFB Canada has a few more great historical documentries

https://www.nfb.ca/film/max_ward

https://www.nfb.ca/film/transpacific_flight/

The NFB film Jet Pilot was produced less than 2 months after the fatal crash of a TCA DC-8-54CF, CF-TJN, on climb out, after departing from Montreal/Dorval.

Recommendations from the crash investigation were not forthcoming at the time of the film's production, which may account for the engine anti-ice being left off the AFTER START CHECKLIST. In addition, your recollection of running the trim to the limits each time pre-take-off may have been a result of the crash investigation. The official accident report for TCA DC-8-54CF, CF-TJN, released in 1965, pointed to problems in the jet's pitch trim system as a possible cause, since a pitch trim problem caused the similar crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 304, another DC-8, three months later on February 25, 1964. (One month after the filming of Jet Pilot.)

Loved it. In the part about fuelling the aircraft, was that guy taking a sample in a bottle to check for water contamination?

Loved it as well, even if I was a 6 year old Montrealer at the time.

Ah....the good old days......

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Great video!

Took me back to 1964 and my first trip in an airliner...Viscount from Perth to Melbourne. Followed a couple of years later in a B707 to Singapore, then a Comet up to Penang.

Those were the days. :ok:

An airliner so huge it holds 137 passengers. Today that would be considered small.

Yes, I know the common vernacular, but....138 passengers "small"? "Small" only to the mass media and the uninformed. The TCA DC-8-40 had a large first class salon, plus a very generous (by today's standards) seat pitch in coach class. Quite comfortable for all. The Palomar seats in coach class were very comfortable, even for a 240 pound "6 foot 4" male passenger. The galley was large and took up precious cabin space, yet it was capable of actually cooking food. The cockpit had four seats, (five if you count the jump seat), because it accommodated a flight engineer and, for long-range flights, a navigator.

To me, an aircraft that carries 2 people and has a GTW of 2,000 lbs. is "small". An aircraft that carries 5 passengers and a crew of 1 with a GTW of 4,500 lbs. is also "small". "Small" is subjective. I prefer the terms Light, Medium, Heavy, Personal, Light twin, Corporate, Commuter, Transport, Jumbo, and oh how I do go on...

Light: up to 12,500 lbs GTW.

Medium: 12,500 lbs to 300,000 lbs GTW.

Heavy: 300,000 lbs GTW plus.

Yup, the above are wake turbulence categories, but still...any aircraft you can walk underneath without stooping and requires a ladder to board is probably not "small". Just saying.

As a steward once said whilst I was deplaning, "Buh bye".

It's not a fair comparison to anything people are operating today, I'll admit.
Still, the number of seats would be right between a 737-600 and a -700.

If it were operated in today's market, likely AC would have crammed in 225 seats or something in that neighbourhood.

evansb just one other category "Super". Also evansb is spot on with his comments but today's environment that level of history is sadly lost to the masses as a whole....

C'mon guys, remember the times for what they were....And those were good times for the era.

Who cares how big the plane was....

Nice historical film on TCA and the pilots who flew there in the 60s.

I was four years old that year and yes I do miss the snow and the amount that fell back in those days... Mother Nature as changed and so as the working conditions for pilots since those days.

I had to laugh a bit at the crew rest period in Jamaica... Today it would be a quick turn-around, no relaxing by the sea while eating local produce. :-)

Notables from the video…

Although they mention a first officer was part of the crew the pilot in the right seat was a captain (according to his uniform). Was this just for the film or did TCA fly often with two captains?

In the clip prior to engine start you can see two rear view mirrors up on the main dashboard (one as to wonder why) and while on the takeoff roll they are not to be seen. Different aircraft or tucked away for takeoff?

While taxiing it is nice to see the older “prop” aircraft TCA was still running at the time. I believe you see some Viscounts, Vanguards and a snow covered Super Constellation at the Air Canada maintenance base.

I too noticed the "no engine anti-ice" in the after the start check list. The clip must have been taken from several flights because the weather conditions seem different from time to time in the clip. The takeoff was on RWY 28 at Dorval but then the in-flight portions show the east end of Montreal.

That bird sure needed a lot of flaps for takeoff in Dorval, but I guess it was a relatively short and contaminated runway for the DC8 with possible anti-ice being used.

My next door guy worked for AC as did his dad. He knew the entire flight crew in the film.

Around that time the introduction of the DC-8 had resulted in a layoff and I suspect the F/O, (and maybe also the S/O), may have had to go backwards for a while. At AC if you had been a Captain but had to go back to F/O status you kept your four stripes.

I flew with both of them as their F/O on the DC-9. Great gents to work with.

The mirrors were to be able to see the Standby Compass which was located behind and above the pilots, almost a sort of periscope principal. Used on full ramp check when all headings were checked and then stowed. If the standby was ever needed in anger you would have had a bad day :-).

Thanks for the info.