Did Ansett or TAA have an F27 simulator
 

Historical Aviation Question: Does anyone know if TAA or Ansett operated a F27 Fokker Friendship flight simulator in the 1970's?

F-27 Simulator
 

I can only comment on Ansett, No we did not have ,"Twenty Ton Dog Whistle" Simulator.

We had a Flight Deck Mock Up, used for check list & scan procedures.

I am fairly sure TAA didn't have one.

Apinun,

Angry Ant

Keith Hants had a fixed base simulator at Essendon which he said was an old Constellation sim converted to F-27 (about 1978). Don't know its source.

Was it ANZ that sold an F27 FFS on to Merpati around this time?

Ansett had a procedures one at Mascot run by a redline gentleman called Jacques d' Stephanie

I remember I got to use it on the QT around 1975 thru to 76

There was a Redifon (?) unit rigged up a bit like an F27 at MEL. Never liked it .. preferred the Link.

Didn't TAA use the night freighter out of Tulla for asymmetric practice back in the day?

use the night freighter out of Tulla for asymmetric practice back in the day?

In the olden days, external pressures led to the odd pragmatic, if somewhat naughty, work around.

My last airline propjet endorsement, for instance, was ALL done at night as there were no aircraft available during the day over the week or so involved ...

I shudder to think what the investigation would have had to say about all the chaps who were waiting their turn in the seat .. hanging on to the available cockpit seats to observe the first up bunnies doing their bit ...

Air NZ F27 SIM.
 

I did my F27 conversion in 1984, East-West Airlines used the Air New Zealand facilities in Auckland at that time, no FFS in OZ..

TAA had a home made fixed base F27 sim. I did an assessment in it in 1980.

Did some simulator time with Ken Felton ( spelling?? - great guy ) at Essendon Airport about 10 to 15 years ago. It was like one of those old Link trainers where you sat in the little capsule. I'm pretty sure he said it was an old F27 trainer.

Ken Fenton .. lovely bloke .. lived up the road from where I lived at the time ..

Ken, post loss of medical in the UK, got a job as a link instructor with AN. I learned all my initial instructional distraction techniques from him when I joined AN. Took a while to work out why he ALWAYS engaged the student in conversation or proffered a coffee .. just as a radial needed to be intercepted, height captured, whatever ... in fact, all the AN link chaps were superb instructors and the learning curve always was kept fairly steep to maximise benefit for time. Pre-deregulation, both AN and TN overtrained and the line results showed.

Scratching the memory cells a bit, as I recall, Ken did set up at EN after his stint with AN and used an ex-AN box. They were never setup to resemble the Mouse, rather a basic I/F trainer and great value to the student. As they were the basic induction training for the Mouse, he would, no doubt, have referred to his box as the F27 trainer.

Lost touch with Ken when I was working O/S and have no idea where he retired to, but guess northern Victoria. His daughter flew for AN for some years during its latter period.

There was a tie up with Keith Hants at EN although I can't recall any details for the life of me.

Link
 

I could never trim the Link to fly straight and level, mentioned this to Father (an AN captain at the time) who scoffed at the very idea of being able to do so.

" Forced you to scan more didn't it"

To Ken Fenton and the other sim instructors in the sim centre at tge time I owe more than I can ever possibly repay.

I could never trim the Link to fly straight and level,

I can't recall if the link had any trims ... if it did, one certainly didn't waste time using them. The idea of the box was to make the student work .. and a solid session was measured in how sweaty the shirt was when one got out of the box at the end ..

Mission accomplished.

Not at all helped by Keith banging on the side of the link (thunderstorm?) and blowing cigarette smoke in through the vent (fire?).

Keith was a top bloke ... the epitome of the laid back, eyes over the glasses' rim, Commander. I guess it all goes back to the matches trick in "Fate is the Hunter".

That he was JT, and a good yarn spinner to we young blokes. A gentlemans Gentleman.

I joined TAA in 1963 and the F.27 was my first aircraft type. They did not have a F.27 simulator. The type rating course consisted of three weeks of classroom instruction, suplimented by manuals and poster size cockpit pictures and diagrams. All flight training was done in the aircraft.

They did have an ex Qantas Super Connie procedures trainer which was used soley for I.F. training and checks.

Folks,
In the '60s, Qantas had one Link D4 with an F-27 panel at SKSA, it was set up for and used by the Airlines of NSW folks, really "sophisticated" compared to the other three (2? -it's a long time ago) D-4s in the same room.
Tootle pip!!