Ansett B727 Crewing Question
 

When Ansett operated the B727, did they have seperate crew for the night freight operations on RMX?

Hi Stationair. The same crews operated pax and freight operations on VH-RMX.

Readymix was up for grabs for whomever either wanted it or had too much juniority to avoid it.

However, there was a caveat elsewhere. Although the memory is fading, and I would have trouble laying my hands on my logs to check, there was a period where AN and TN shared the -100 freighter flying and we flew blocks on the freighter. I vaguely recall this was for 2-3 months at a time ? Wonderful time was had by all ..

Some of us, especially ex-Wombats, bid routinely for the freighter flying and its associated relaxed schedules. The hosties, however, left a tad to be desired ...

Poor old FE's cop it again. You shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you! :E

Give a bloke a go .. I was extremely pro-FEs as a crew complement.

At least they'd have a beer on overnights.

Was it Ronny Hare (one of Nature's finest gingerbeers - RIP) who did the hand-out-the-toiletries-exercise at the foot of the stairs long ago .. and upset a group of the ladies ? He was a character was our Ron ...

Hey enough about the "hosties" will you, I used to be a loadmaster on RMX back in the Wrightson's Bloodstock days when we carried nags between Aus and NZ. I still remember wandering (crawling more like it) down the back one flight back from Akl when we had a few cows on board and discovering some old fella who had actually taken one of the dairy cows out of the horse box and had it standing merrily on the open pallet unrestrained at 35,000 feet. When I asked him incredulously what he was doing, he simply replied "milking" in a tone that implied I must have been an idiot to not know that.... Ahhh happy days

I flew with Ron on the 767- Great bloke!!

.. maybe we should have a Wombat reunion before we all shuffle off ?

727/100
 

Ah, C2-RN7 flew like Boeing meant 727 to fly!

During my time on RMX we donated a few dollars a month to support the Wombats in the Melbourne Zoo. I remember seeing the plaque on their enclosure when I took my young daughter for a visit. It said something along the lines, "Supported by the Pilots of Ansett Air Freight". They must be very thin by now.

.. and, no doubt, you still have your Wombat Squadron badges and so forth ?

Last Wombat sticker went out with the old Ansett Nav bag which fell to bits in Singapore days.
The only time I ever met Sir Peter Abeles,I was on a Freighter pairing and he told me how much he was amused by the origins of the 'Wombat' painted on the aircraft. Difficult to find any of this humour with the current operators.

C2-RN7 was originally the Ansett VH-RMS. Ansett sold the a/c after just over 10 years of use. A few months before Ansett sold the a/c it was seen painted with the name ANSETT replaced with ANNSETT in large letters. The a/c operated in Australia for a further 24 years with a number of owners/operators.

Whilst we are on the subject of F/E's of the likes of the "Hare", Rod "Sparrow" Swallow was another great character F/E. Alan Clarke, Johnny "JJ" Jansen......... the list just goes on and on.:ok:

Is it true that a pistol was carried on livestock flights in case a horse decided it didn’t like the cabin service?

I believe that’s a requirement when carrying livestock of that size in case it goes berserk inflight.

I understand a firearm is too dangerous (and unpredictable) in an aircraft (says allot about the wisdom of armed 'skymarshalls")

In my experience on horse charters there has always been a Vet carried with a "Humane Killer", a captive bolt gun, a spring actuated non explosive device.

CC

In my days on B707 horse charters we carried a "pole syringe" to put down out of control horses. This device was a large syringe mounted on the end of a couple of metres broomstick.

didn't they have a tranquilliser on a large stick

The aeroplane survives at the Aviation Australia training institution at Brisbane Airport. I believe that would make it the only 727 in Australia.