It was all better back then...
because we were the up and coming generation and would happily fly PA-31's and 402's and Queenairs and Barons without all the bitching and whining.
Word to the young.........you bitch about old equipment.
Old pilots bitch about young pilots.
Only seems fair.
Word to the young.........you bitch about old equipment.
Old pilots bitch about young pilots.
Only seems fair.
In 'our' days Pete, those aforementioned aeroplanes were the 'TOP DOG'....
It was our ambition to fly ALL of them ...or at least get a 'good' job on one of them....
My 'word to the young' would revolve around the 'missing' word these days....
A I R M A N S H I P ...!!!
Cheers
(Maybe its just moi....but.....
It was our ambition to fly ALL of them ...or at least get a 'good' job on one of them....
My 'word to the young' would revolve around the 'missing' word these days....
A I R M A N S H I P ...!!!
Cheers
(Maybe its just moi....but.....
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Hiding between the Animal Bar and the Suave Bar
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Kingy, Lear, all good, but DC3 ... it's still the one that I'll kill to get a chance at flying !!
Got the manual, know the systems, numbers and emergs off by heart, read Ernie Gann 'till my ears bleed ... now where's that bloody aeroplane ?!!
Got the manual, know the systems, numbers and emergs off by heart, read Ernie Gann 'till my ears bleed ... now where's that bloody aeroplane ?!!
I never got to fly a Kingair, Lear or DC-3.................but would still like to.
.........but to fly a Duke or C421 was a dream...........pressurised!
would happily fly PA-31's and 402's and Queenairs and Barons
Join Date: Jul 2010
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No locked cockpit doors. 
No mandatory security for crew, or even pax
Airmanship actually meant something
Passengers actually showed respect for staff, even wore shoes on aircraft back then.................
Staff respected customers, a friendly smile and assistance,
Management had respect for employees opinions,
Flight service units, face to face discussions with the met man.
Pilots in opposing companies used to be friends, even strangers would acknowledge each other and say hi in the briefing room.
No mandatory security for crew, or even pax
Airmanship actually meant something
Passengers actually showed respect for staff, even wore shoes on aircraft back then.................
Staff respected customers, a friendly smile and assistance,
Management had respect for employees opinions,
Flight service units, face to face discussions with the met man.
Pilots in opposing companies used to be friends, even strangers would acknowledge each other and say hi in the briefing room.
Join Date: May 2001
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I don't know. It'll never happen, but I'd love to get the chance of a flight in an F-35. Never have to turn my head with the HUD and weapons system. G-suit is claustrophobic, but the side loads would be fun to experience.
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Brisbane
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It’s because we started at the bottom and gradually crept up!
1. Learned to FLY. Started in a Tiger Moth or Auster with no wireless set to have to operate. We concentrated on learning flying skills with only five light signals and two coloured flares to keep an eye out on the tower for.
2. When we upgraded into a Chippie we learned about wirelesses with five VHF channels and then later Cessnas with a HF radio with squelch and volume nobs and another four or six crystals in that. Some had a fishing reel in the ceiling whith the rtrailing aerial wound on it you had to remember to wind back in or you lost her on the aerodrome fence. Cessnas or Tripacers had a great big radio compass with it’s three bands and a great round dial full of frequencies and a BFO switch.
Air Law and CRM what the hell were they.
3. Controlled area was above ten thousand. Who got to ten grand in one of those old girls… too bloody cold. The control zones just were around the capitals and we went into them when we were well into our Commercial Nav training… maybe.
4. Student pilots were learners who said WOW! when they met a Private Pilot. Commercial trainees were up there with God. They sometimes flew in cabin aeroplanes and wore suits when they did.
5. Student Pilots, including Commercial students were going to be flying like an Airline pilot in a great big DC-6, one day in the future… when they had learned all their stuff.
6. Bars on shoulders were respected. One and a half meant, “He’s made the airlines and is a First Officer in a great big DC-3. He’s learned his stuff, proved it to the interviewers and the bars are the proof.
The bloke with one and a half, looked up to the bloke with two, who looked forward to the gruelling training had proving he’d get to do to wear two and a half and be in command of an airliner.
7. The Captain had been honed by fellers who learned how not to kill themselves in primitive collections of sticks ‘n pipe covered in rag from Kingsford Smith, Horry Miller, Aub Kosch and the like or had come back after the Germans and Japs had tried knockin’ them down with tons of red hot steel for years. They had learned all the tricks and rules of thumb and they slowly and generously passed the knowledge on to us. We knew we were in the presence of real pilots and maybe we could become a bit like them over the next ten years. There was a bloody lot to learn.
8. Most captains were humble and didn’t strut round quoting buzz words like, "responsibility", "command decision" etc, to impress themselves when they had an audience.
9. Hosties respected pilots and didn’t think they were more important than the young FO because THEY’d been in the company longer. They got chucked out at thirty or when they were married
… oh for the old days.
Now, Instructors with no experience have to toe the line and teach students (out of the book) to think they're just like Jumbo Captains from the start.
1. Learned to FLY. Started in a Tiger Moth or Auster with no wireless set to have to operate. We concentrated on learning flying skills with only five light signals and two coloured flares to keep an eye out on the tower for.
2. When we upgraded into a Chippie we learned about wirelesses with five VHF channels and then later Cessnas with a HF radio with squelch and volume nobs and another four or six crystals in that. Some had a fishing reel in the ceiling whith the rtrailing aerial wound on it you had to remember to wind back in or you lost her on the aerodrome fence. Cessnas or Tripacers had a great big radio compass with it’s three bands and a great round dial full of frequencies and a BFO switch.
Air Law and CRM what the hell were they.
3. Controlled area was above ten thousand. Who got to ten grand in one of those old girls… too bloody cold. The control zones just were around the capitals and we went into them when we were well into our Commercial Nav training… maybe.
4. Student pilots were learners who said WOW! when they met a Private Pilot. Commercial trainees were up there with God. They sometimes flew in cabin aeroplanes and wore suits when they did.
5. Student Pilots, including Commercial students were going to be flying like an Airline pilot in a great big DC-6, one day in the future… when they had learned all their stuff.
6. Bars on shoulders were respected. One and a half meant, “He’s made the airlines and is a First Officer in a great big DC-3. He’s learned his stuff, proved it to the interviewers and the bars are the proof.
The bloke with one and a half, looked up to the bloke with two, who looked forward to the gruelling training had proving he’d get to do to wear two and a half and be in command of an airliner.
7. The Captain had been honed by fellers who learned how not to kill themselves in primitive collections of sticks ‘n pipe covered in rag from Kingsford Smith, Horry Miller, Aub Kosch and the like or had come back after the Germans and Japs had tried knockin’ them down with tons of red hot steel for years. They had learned all the tricks and rules of thumb and they slowly and generously passed the knowledge on to us. We knew we were in the presence of real pilots and maybe we could become a bit like them over the next ten years. There was a bloody lot to learn.
8. Most captains were humble and didn’t strut round quoting buzz words like, "responsibility", "command decision" etc, to impress themselves when they had an audience.
9. Hosties respected pilots and didn’t think they were more important than the young FO because THEY’d been in the company longer. They got chucked out at thirty or when they were married
… oh for the old days.
Now, Instructors with no experience have to toe the line and teach students (out of the book) to think they're just like Jumbo Captains from the start.
Geez, where did I put my violin?
Dr
PS: You fellas are talking about stuff that even I don't remember - and I took my first flight in a C150 in 1966!
But I do remember when the hosties who plied me with red wine and caviar enroute Isa to Brisbane were "hot"!
Dr
PS: You fellas are talking about stuff that even I don't remember - and I took my first flight in a C150 in 1966!
But I do remember when the hosties who plied me with red wine and caviar enroute Isa to Brisbane were "hot"!
