Night freight article on the Flying magazine
Quote:
"Whatever happened to the Excalibur Queenair VH-XAE......"
Got sold to a Perth operator about 5 years ago flying nightfreight to Port Headland and back to Perth. I has been sitting idle for a few months now due to expired spar life
Used to fly it in it's heydays along the East Coast.
"Whatever happened to the Excalibur Queenair VH-XAE......"
Got sold to a Perth operator about 5 years ago flying nightfreight to Port Headland and back to Perth. I has been sitting idle for a few months now due to expired spar life
Used to fly it in it's heydays along the East Coast.
What's the spar life on the Queenair?
Perth to Port Headland that would be few hours flying, would want a good autopilot and a GPS!
Did the Excabilur Queenairs carry a better payload than the standard Queenairs?
Perth to Port Headland that would be few hours flying, would want a good autopilot and a GPS!
Did the Excabilur Queenairs carry a better payload than the standard Queenairs?
VH-XAE is B80 and have a spar life of only 11,000 hrs. The sad thing is that it is only applicable in Australia.
It is a very well equipped ship with autopilot, GPS, dual instruments, even dual transponder and quality avionics. The previous owner spent thousands of dollars on it, even fitted a crewdoor.
It would carry 1200 kg with 2.5 hrs fuel plus reserves at 185 kts. Being naturally aspirated it would run out of puff above 10k though.
It is a very well equipped ship with autopilot, GPS, dual instruments, even dual transponder and quality avionics. The previous owner spent thousands of dollars on it, even fitted a crewdoor.
It would carry 1200 kg with 2.5 hrs fuel plus reserves at 185 kts. Being naturally aspirated it would run out of puff above 10k though.
The Bathurst 1000 was a desperate measure for a freighter simply because Bankstown just ran out of aircrafts to hire. Pax hated XAE because the windows were so badly scratched up you could hardly see out. I spent all saturday ferrying people to Bathurst in another aircraft, what a weekend that was. It will never happen again.....
Did the St. Helens run a few times in XAE.... I am sure i do know both of you guys.
Did the St. Helens run a few times in XAE.... I am sure i do know both of you guys.
Why is it that for the last 5 or 6 articles in Aust Flying about night freight ops, its always a chick pilot.
One would be forgiven thinking only chicks get a gig.
One would be forgiven thinking only chicks get a gig.
Happens a fair bit, though you probably won't be told that was the reason you didn't get the gig when it's gone to another 'more qualified applicant', ie '20 kilos lighter you!'
See 'Too Heavy to work' post.
Of course I meant from St Helens, I think my brain said to St Helens for Crayfish. but here in DXB my fingers did not do it!
Best one I ever had was leaving BK at 3am to get to St Helens at first light....... wake up the whole of western Sydney with a left turn on track and SYD radar says, XAE, would you like a radar heading for destination, then cleared direct HGD 186 (or close enough).
I tell you it worked out almost spot on!
Some good times were had.
Best one I ever had was leaving BK at 3am to get to St Helens at first light....... wake up the whole of western Sydney with a left turn on track and SYD radar says, XAE, would you like a radar heading for destination, then cleared direct HGD 186 (or close enough).
I tell you it worked out almost spot on!
Some good times were had.
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XAE and AEQ were the only exaliburs in the country.
Nice machines to work on, spar life was the killer.
The company that operated them was Air Eastern, they had a few other queen-airs RUU, AMQ some other ones i cant quite remember.
I modified theexhausts on the one out of Adelaide to linclon to try and meet the noise regulations, but like the 3 holer near impossible.
Those were the good old days
Nice machines to work on, spar life was the killer.
The company that operated them was Air Eastern, they had a few other queen-airs RUU, AMQ some other ones i cant quite remember.
I modified theexhausts on the one out of Adelaide to linclon to try and meet the noise regulations, but like the 3 holer near impossible.
Those were the good old days
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Nomorecatering,
I can't answer for the other articles, but Natalie was one of only two pilots on the night when the photo shoot was done for this one. The other gentleman didn't want his name in the feature because he was concerned it might jeopardise his chances of getting a right-hand seat on a heavy. I needed quotes to be attributable to a name, and that meant Natalie. There was nothing sinister or sexist or anything else about it.
Steve Hitchen
Senior Contributor
Australian Flying
aka Walrus 7
I can't answer for the other articles, but Natalie was one of only two pilots on the night when the photo shoot was done for this one. The other gentleman didn't want his name in the feature because he was concerned it might jeopardise his chances of getting a right-hand seat on a heavy. I needed quotes to be attributable to a name, and that meant Natalie. There was nothing sinister or sexist or anything else about it.
Steve Hitchen
Senior Contributor
Australian Flying
aka Walrus 7
