Some Of The Crew Back In 1992-1993.
 

Just going through some old photos and came across these ones, some of the Aussies on an overseas contract back in 1992-1993.

I will NOT mention any names in case they don't want to, however very curious if any are still around, and maybe even here on PPRuNe?

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0002.jpg

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0003.jpg

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0004.jpg

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0005.jpg

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0001.jpg

Several faces from the past.

Last ran into Geoff at the '89 20 year gathering down at Maribyrnong if my recollection is correct. No idea if he frequents Pprune.

Great guy, as they all were, he was actually promoted to Captain while we were there. :ok:

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0008.jpg

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0009.jpg

What are all those things with dials in the cockpit shots? :}

Oh dear, I could name most, but I won't. The day Hawkie dies we will have a reunion, a pissup never to be forgotten, until then.................

And when you have that p!ssup, save all your urine for his grave! A greater scumbag or hippocrite you will not find in this country.

I think your FO in the first photo (RA) is now an A330 Captain at Air China.

Assuming RA are his initials? then you have the wrong guy, his are BS, unless he has changed his name.

This is him again, with the Chief Pilot (MK) walking passed the ''Hanoi Hilton''.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0007.jpg

Those things with dials are what REAL aircraft have........... ;)

Yes they are all ''dispute'' Pilots and all great guys, but PLEASE do not say too much about that or the thread will get locked or deleted. :(

HT who we were talking about on another thread the other day, true Gentleman, is in the photos of Geoff's ''party'', cannot find any of him on the aircraft.

A very, very few of us still left in Cathay Pacific, most joined during 1990, some later via Malaysian and Swissair; some are CX sim instructors (mainly ex-TAA, and thorough gentlemen they are too) and a handful of ex-AN still on the line, but the numbers are thinning further with retirements.

Who'd 'a thunk it some twenty-plus years ago?

I for one am greatly looking forward to the gathering alluded to above, hopefully it will be sooner rather than later (oh uh, I just mentioned the war, but I think I got away with it).

Henry, as always, with a grin from ear to ear. (I presume this was on the Vietnam contract ?)

A wonderful mentor and passer on of knowledge and how things ought to be done. I think my first flight with him was as a very raw FO on the Dogwhistle when he was still in the Supt Command and Intake Training chair (I'm still amazed that he took pity on me and gave me a job) .. up to Cooma and back, if I recall. We had some trivial systems problem (so important I can't recall what it was) and I launched into action (as young chaps are wont to do), pulling out books here and there, flicking over to this and that page in the QRH .. and, eventually, I was READY.

The Great Man, on the other hand, was only concerned with the adequacy of his cigar's ignition. After about (what seemed to be) twenty minutes and 400 attempts to get the thing lit properly and to his satisfaction he relaxed back in his seat, took several obviously very satisfied sucks on the cigar and then, eventually, turned to me and said "now, young fellow, vat seems to be ze problem ?"

Learnt a lesson from that exchange, I did.

It's interesting how the aforementioned poli is also remembered with more than distaste by Vietnam veterans (something to do with supply ships to troops and union bans whilst he was ACTU president).
Possibly a long queue to visit his grave.

I understand how you guys feel, I also despise the man, but would you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE refrain from ruining my thread or worse getting it locked or deleted.

THANK YOU...................... :ok:

Yes, Henry was the Training Captain in Vietnam, as well as being a Line Captain, fantastic bloke and Pilot of course. :ok:

Never heard him say a bad word about anyone, always so cheerful, he cheered me up a couple of times there when I was feeling very homesick.

I also had a bit to do with him at Southern Cross (Compass 2) where he was one of two Chief Pilots, true Gentleman if ever there was one. :ok:

Point taken, airsupport, but thanks for highlighting my comment!

I second the comments about Henry. But I did find it strange that AN F/O's read checklists while manipulating the aircraft, weren't allowed to start engines or taxi and had their hand slapped away if they touched the 'ALT select' knob!

We weren't that bad were we?

Excellent thread Airsupport. I wholeheartedly agree,please no one bring 'that date' or political agendas in here. Let us oldies post all our piccys from our times back then, as many of us know those familiar faces.

Is the Capt in piccy one,RL by any chance?

The Captain in picture 1 is the guy we were talking about before, Geoff R, by stories he told up there he was an RAAF Hercules Pilot, the First Officer with him is BS, ex AN and an ex Aircraft Engineer/Apprentice with AN.

Picture 2 is who my kids used to call ''Uncle Bill'' because he used to bring things back here to them for me from Vietnam, BR. In that photo he looks a little tired, in his defence it was about half way through a 12 hour Moscow to Hanoi flight.

Picture 3 is First Officer RH, on same flight, maybe sunnies help.

Picture 4 is the lovely Simone B, ex Compass, not sure where from before that.

Picture 5 is the lovely Simone again suddenly putting her arm around Captain PMcC in flight................

Now that I've vented my spleen (:E) I'm the generation that followed you guys. I met quite a few of you fellows who went back to GA on my 'hour building tours'.

Nothing but respect for the stories you told and the experiences you went through :ok:

The current generation could learn a thing or two from yours :ok:

During that time we had several Vietnamese Pilots flying with us as First Officers, one of them Captain Truang (spelling from memory) was one of the National Heroes of Vietnam, although we all thought he was a Traitor.

He was a Colonel in the South Vietnamese Air Force and towards the end of the War he took off from Saigon and dropped his bombs on the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace and hightailed it up to Hanoi.

He later became very high up in Vietnam Airlines, but I believe he has retired now.

You should have heard what Geoff thought of him, as apparently Geoff was on the ground in Saigon in an RAAF Hercules when he dropped the bombs just down the road......... :eek:

He was a handy guy to have with you though, I remember coming into Hanoi one day, ATC was messing us around favouring all the locals, Truang got on the radio and said a few words in Vietnamese and then it was you are cleared for immediate priority approach. :ok:

Just had to google that - interesting story....

Vietnam Passage. The Stories: Trung | PBS

Yes, I just read that link you posted, that is the guy, sorry about my spelling.

He was quite a nice guy, just it was hard for us to accept him after what he had done, but to most Vietnamese he was a hero.

He told us many of his war stories, like chasing away Chinese fighters from some of the outlying islands etc.

Very handy guy to have with you as far as getting things done. :ok:

Hey airsupport

I bet the lovely blonde in those pics did not get a sexual harassment charge either....:ok:

I certainly hope not, she was a lovely Lady as were all our Pursers.

I think she startled Paul in that photo. ;)

We had Aussie Pursers (as they were called in those days) but the rest of the Cabin Crew were Vietnamese.

Hey airsupport,

Can you give those of us too young to know a bit of background, what was the contract for? Why the aussie purser/vietnamese cc? What was the ratio of Aussie to local pilots? And anything else you think is worth us younguns knowing!

Sure if you are seriously interested.

I was there personally from the start of the contract in 1992 through 1993, however I am not sure exactly how long it went on after that.

Vietnam Airlines were looking to expand dramatically, at the time they only had Russian made aircraft and only operated domestically and to a few very close Countries.

They wet leased a B767-200ER (VH-RMA) from AWAS, and the Pilots, Pursers, Engineers and Station Manager come as part of the wet lease along with things like insurances etc.

Once we were there we operated to all sorts of places for Vietnam Airlines, mainly several overnights a week in Taipei, where all the scheduled maintenance was done, also Moscow and back to Sydney and Melbourne.

The Cabin Crew, except for the Pursers were local Vietnamese, and we had some of the local Mechanics and some of their Pilots with us too. While I was there the Vietnamese were only First Officers on board our aircraft, even the famous Mr Trung.

It was made more difficult, but also interesting, because of the American Embargo, the aircraft was not initially allowed to display the Vietnamese name or flag, was not supposed to ever overnight in Vietnam, but we often did, and it was impossible to get any technical support from ANY American Company, but us Aussies found ways around all of that. ;)

Most definitely, thanks for taking the time to explain! A nice little part of Australian Aviation history and probably some great stories came out of it.

Yes, and probably some may be better left untold. :E

All the people we worked with were very nice people, some still had no time for Yanks, but they all were happy with Aussies. :ok:

One of the main potential problems were as I said before they were only used to these really old Russian aircraft.

The first check we did in Saigon one of the local Mechanics went to do as they did on all their Russian aircraft, pull out the overwing exit and walk out on the wing, I just managed to stop him before he did so and deployed the escape slide etc. :uhoh:

Another time on a flight up to Taipei for an overnight I went up to the buffet to get myself a cup of tea, and the Vietnamese Ladies (CC) were having a discussion about safety things. They had apparently discussed the idea that IF there was an emergency landing they could open the cabin doors on touch down or even just before touch down in order to speed up the evacuation. :uhoh:

I suggested to them that they may want to discuss this with the Purser, as the Captain would be very angry IF they did this and sent evacuation slides down his engines.

Great people all of them, just they were NOT used to the technology of a Boeing 767.

I guess you guys would rather hear about operational stories.

As I said before our wet lease was the first Western aircraft to operate in Vietnam and the only Western Crews too, not counting the War of course.

ATC in Saigon was not too bad, they had dealt for years with Western Military aircraft and Crews, however Hanoi not so much, it was primarily there for the Vietnamese Air Force and the local Vietnam Airlines Crews in their Russian lead sleds as we called them. They were okay but you never really knew what they thought or whether you could rely on them.

Anyway we were returning to Hanoi one day from Moscow, very long flight of some 12 hours, just wanted to get down safely ASAP, overcast day with limited visibility and Hanoi ATC were keen to talk us down.

When they asked us to report ''field in sight'' the Crew did so, Hanoi asked for confirmation and it was given, we could see some fields at the time, mainly rice fields. ;)

Anyway a normal uneventful approach and landing followed without ATC assistance.

When we turned off the runway there was a ''follow me'' car waiting for us, had never seen them use one before that day or after it.

As we were taxiing in behind this car ATC said please confirm you can see the follow me car (with laughter too), just letting us know that he knew we were not really visual when we said we were, and proving he did actually have a sense of humour. :ok:

I was also on the AWAS contract.Jumped in a cab in HCMC one day and the cab driver spoke perfect english I asked him where he learnt his english.He said, America during the war, where he was trained as an air traffic controller.I asked the obvious question,why aren't you a controller now? He said, because the north won the war and they did not trust those from the south with such a security type job.:ugh:

This is our aircraft on turnround Hanoi, with an Aeroflot aircraft behind it.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ort/hanoi1.jpg

And a photo I just found of some of the local Vietnamese Cabin Crew.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ort/hanoi2.jpg

Nup, all of them :ok:

At that same time, early on, or later?

Just going through the photos again, found a few more that may, or may not, be of interest. :ok:

This is the only other one I can find of a different Crew Member, First Officer CC enjoying a break at the Dragon Inn in Saigon.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...rt/viet001.jpg

This aircraft WAS retired from service, but only just before we arrived, from memory I think it is an AN-2.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...rt/viet002.jpg

These were the main aircraft used domestically when we arrived, AN-24s, and that was our driver Mr Ming waving to you.................

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...rt/viet003.jpg

Now this photo I am sure many of you will think is silly, but I was so pleased to get it and that it worked this well. It is on final approach with clearance to land runway 25L Tan Son Nhat International (Saigon) through the windsreen of our B767.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...rt/viet004.jpg

This was a VERY rare visitor to Saigon, an enemy aircraft, there for talks about lifting the embargo.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...rt/viet005.jpg

Nice thread and a welcome change to the usual diatribe on here.

Young Colin. Haven't seen him in years. Is he still floating about the countryside ?

Couple more of the local workers, cleaning our 767 in Saigon.

While a few of them do have hard hats on, they had no real safety gear like harnesses or anything, and none of those hi vis vests.

Can you imagine this happening in OZ.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...pport/767g.jpg

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...pport/767h.jpg

air support

I was later, 1996.

Okay, I guess things had changed quite a bit by then.

Young Col passed away a couple of years ago. He came to us in the islands after the AWAS contract then went to VB, late 90's early noughties?

cheers

coco

So sorry to hear that :( but thank you for the news.

Airsupport,
Within trying to be picky, Qantas operated the first of many B767 charter flights in to Ho Chi Minh City on January 6th 1992 so unless the AWAS contract started between Jan 1 and Jan 5 1992 .............