Comments on: Gone at last. The biggest looser in the Qantas fleet

By: StewartK

StewartK — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:05:15 +0000

I’m a long-retired Q747 pilot. Spent 3 years based in London where we flew 3 routes:
– LHR to Bombay and back, working. Plus LHR to Bahrein & to Frankfurt. – We’d take
off our shoulder stripes, buy some duty-free at the megastore under the airport and
take whatever local Qantas staff could get us on, as 1st class passengers, back to
Heathrow.
-
Most were good and efficient. – But – One time, we found ourselves on a VERY early model Air India 747. [ The soap dishes in the toilets were carved hardwood ! -
-
Both Qantas and IA used Lufthansa as our local tech support.
-
Long delay on board. - Free drinks and snacks for 3 or 4 hours.
Turned out that Lufthansa had
GREAT problems finding a replacement part to fix the old IA 747. [ They finally
found a part from a German charter company that was still using old, similar
747's at Frankfurt. ]
-
Very tired, we finally got to LHR as passengers well after mid-day, instead of our more normal 0900.
—————————————————————————
NEXT ? – Ask me about deadheading into Rome after a long flight from the Middle East
on an ‘Italian International Airline. – I went forward from 1st Class to the toilet.
- The cockpit door was open. – Only the Captain on the flight deck. An open bottle of
wine on the floor and a glass in his hand. He saw me in my airline uniform without
shoulder stripes, raised his glass and said,
“Saluud “-
ENDS

By: A venerable old bird retires « 72A

A venerable old bird retires « 72A — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:55:04 +0000

...] in during my all too frequent trips to Perth from Melbourne in 2008. To explain, Qantas has finally retired the last of the ancient 747s they had been using on this route to punish [...

By: Bree

Bree — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:39:20 +0000

They shouldn’t have threw it away. They could have sent it to Longreach and parked it next to the 742.

By: John Ord

John Ord — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:39:11 +0000

Goodbye and good riddance!

As a frequent Perth to Melbourne/Sydney flyer, I’m not sorry to see the last of these dirty and unreliable beasts!

I’m sure these planes will even find a way to be late when it comes time to decay!

By: Magoo

Magoo — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:43:31 +0000

Looser? As opposed to ‘tighter’?

And the delay wasn’t due to ATC, but because the crew decided to take on a bit of extra fuel due to the aircraft carrying cargo on the flight.

“Unsatisfactorily maintained”, or just old?

By: Bree

Bree — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:31:22 +0000

Bill, how can you say the 743’s where not up to it? The A330 clearly has a navigation problem, if a similiar accident happens twice in the space of a few months. The 743’s that were used for domestic flights (Qantas also used them for charter flights for school students) never had any problem whatsover. Airbus planes have a long history of poor workmanship, which I won’t go into.

By: Bill Parker

Bill Parker — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:52:54 +0000

Marapana? That should be Marana.

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=&airlinesearch=&countrysearch=-+Marana+-+Pinal+Airpark

Bill

By: Bill Parker

Bill Parker — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:32:22 +0000

The Exmouth issue is not resolved and could affect any fly by wire aircraft. The number of flights passing Exmouth is about 30 a day. (correct?) I am aware of only three incidents in the past 25 years.

I maintain my opinion, but the key issue is age and and airworthyness. Those old 338s were not up to it.

Bill

By: Ben Sandilands

Ben Sandilands — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:27:05 +0000

On the topic of the Qantas A330 incidents associated with the Naval communications base near Exmouth, they weren’t really near it at all. The first loss of control incident happened when it was 145 kilometres away, leading to an emergency landing at Learmonth, and the second, when it was more than 630 kilometres from the base, lead to a return to Perth.

These were serious incidents. But I don’t buy any link to electromagnetic interference from the base, since many A330s, and sometimes one or two A380s a day, and around four to six A340s and about two A320s a day also pass it, sometimes much more closely than either of the Qantas jets.

The official finger of suspicion has been pointed at the inertial air data reference units used in the A330. I think the heightened awareness of this problem among A330 pilots, and the specific bulletins and airworthiness directives that have been issued to all airlines using the type is a good reason not to be worried about flying in that jet.

By: Bree

Bree — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:02:57 +0000

Bill, Airbus A330 planes from Perth-Singapore have been having alot of problems when flying over Exmouth, WA. When B747-300’s used to do the Perth-Singapore route several years ago, they never had any problems. Does any think Qantas should make a request to Boeing to make some B747-400D’s? In Japan they use 747s for domestic flights! That would be very cool here in Australia. I know Qantas used to use 743’s for domestic flights from Perth to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Canberra about 10 years ago.