Racehorse transport?
 

Anybody regularly transport Racehorses in Europe?
What aircraft are in use?

Up until very recently, Air Contractors 727's did a lot of UK-Eire horse flying. Had previously been done with the Electra. I think there was a proposal for someone like Raf-Avia or Eminex to do them on the antonov 72? (strange looking one with the engines over the wing) as you can walk on walk off so saving the horses a hi loader trip. Not sure who is doing them now.

I think 146's be what you're after.
PANAIR of Spain used to do some I think; or other TNT subsidiaries.
Could always try Emerald?!

4

Atlas carries them all over the world in their 742s and 744s.

Red Four

Will these horses be lying on the floor on the Emerald 748 or 360's.

Emerald would be great if you have got ponies that need transporting or rocking horses but thats about it.

;) :D :)

Horsesh*t
 

Kalitta Air also carries them on the B-747 Classic.

Yep, TNT still do it, as charters to fill in times when the a/c are otherwise unoccupied.

Also have done David Couthard's race car in the past, although horses are somewhat quicker on the track.......:rolleyes:

DHL are the ones commanding the vast majority of the European market using 727s (from ACL and EAT) and, very soon, (EAT) 75s. The A300s have also seen a few of the smelly bugggers. Mainly race horses, but also did a lot of flying last year for the horse-jumping whatever world championships in Spain; put us in a nice position to bid for the Olympics this year.

Doing a lot of flying for the Makhtoum's Godolphin stable, both race and endurance horses. Took a single horse Cambridge-Baden Baden last year for the German Grand Prix. They had to pay 4 sectors, as we positioned from/to BRU. Dunno what that'll cost them, but the first price at the race was a respectable 500K Euro. "Our" horse won :ok:
While I'm not at all interested in horses, the static Bugatti display was rather impressive. Not so impressive as seeing (and hearing!) the new 1001HP Bugatti Veyron race up and down the runway at Baden-Baden. At an estimated 1 Million Euro, you could buy roughly 10 Veyron's for the price of the horse that won the Grand Prix. Expensive critters .....

EAT gonna sort the lack of slides on their 757's or are grooms going to do the commando fall out the door like the rest of us?

Daysleeper,

Rear doors activated with slides, fully BCAA/JAA approved mods. Most expensive part of the conversion was fitting reinforced cockpit door in case the grooms run amok! Gonna be a nice bird for the job but a lot of time has been spent rewriting the T/O procedures 'cos otherwise they go up too fast.

Watch this space a coupla weeks :ok:

RT

Horses not ok with 20 degrees nose up then? ;)

Daysleeper
 

You, ehh, don't wanna do that mate. Despite the reinforced door, the grooms'll be coming after you if your driving inflicts any harm on the beasts - string ya' up by the tie in the nearest overhead bin. Oh and that N1 button you press at take-off? Nope, sorry, off limits. Better stick an inop tape on it :D

And real pilot over auto-pilot, if you please.

Back in 87 i use to fly the nags all around Europe in the Bristol Freighter & later in the DC 6. Nice weekend stopovers.

Definatey have to rewrite EAT's procs then. And probably best add a few tens of tons of ballast as well!

NEW SOP!
after positive rate ,gear up ,select v/s +200 and quickly clean up:}
Do not follow the noise departure but try to fly arround the solid bits.
The fun days are back again daysleeper:E !

Neil

no no no its positive CLIMB not rate, good grief what do you do on your weekends, dont you read the SOP's ;)

Once spent hours trying to put a seat belt on one of the ******s:ouch:

A level deck and beautifully co-ordinated turns are not always the answer. There was a great crash down the back end which upon investigation revealed a horse had fallen asleep. He was returning home after stud duties. Know the feeling.

Out of interest what happens with the humane killer on the new 757 jallopy transport. I always thought it had to be under control of the flight crew and would be issued to grooms if needed (P45 option) but with the armoured flight deck concept what do you do. Issue a firearm (ok captive bolt but easy to convert) as the grooms board or wait till they knock on the flight deck door and say can we have the gun to shoot you both?


Nineiron: so it true you used to have "relations" with horses:D

Daysleeper
 

You have the human killer at your finger tips mate. A horse goes beserk, and the grooms advice you of this fact. The grooms goes on oxygen, you dump the cabin pressure and the nags to go sleep. Problem solved.

Using a .45, or a deadbolt, will render several million Euro's worth of horse rather dead. That will not do; them horses are far more expensive to replace than you and I mate ;)

Will there be a humane killer onboard? I suppose so. It will be under the command of either a vet or the chief groom. Will it be used? Not unless you can't dump the cabin fast enough!

As for the reinforced door ... Well, it doesn't actually improve communication between cockpit and cabin does it? On the horse fligths I've loadmastered I seem to have been constantly going from cabin to cockpit conveying information (can we descent to escape turbulence? - when are we landing? - can you fly around them towering CBs? - are the horses behaving? - have you briefed the grooms/vets about the landing - can you spare me a fag? etc etc etc). Not exactly crucial information, but something that is very much appreciated by the grooms. And they are our costumers, and if they should develop negative feelings about flying with DHL, they've got the power to make the contract go to someone else. The power they hold is the sole reason that a few of the rear windows will be uncovered both sides; to let in a bit of sunshine which will make them happy.

The good thing about a door is that it can be left both open and closed, if you catch my drift ....