QF 747 flight over YSCB

[LewisM]

Canberra farewells a beautiful icon...

[glend]

Sad to see them go, I travelled the world on them and always felt safe; not something I could say about the Lockheed L1011.
I see British Airways has today announced the retirement of their entire 747 fleet, the largest still in operation apparently. This puts alot of 747 pilots on the scrap heap.

The aviation world must have a massive number of highly qualified captains and first officers certified to fly these super heavies, including A380s. Where do they go? Do they try to step down to flying twin engine aircraft, which already are crewed. Sit and wait and hope for a recovery? How do they stay current? Just retire, regardless of age. I hope someone like Allan Wade can save his career, and I would welcome his views on this whole mess.

[DJT]

A mate of mine was on the last Sydney flight on Monday and grabbed a souvenir for me.

[LewisM]

Apologies for the quality of photo from my Potato...aka iPhone. I should have taken the photos with my can of deodorant - would have given a better quality image than from this iPhone...:( (they look fine on the tiny iPhone screen...but horrid on a monitor :lol:)

[erick]

:sadeyes:

But, you can come and walk all around, through and under our Qantas 747-400!

https://hars.org.au/boeing-747-438-longreach/

[gary]

"Qantas Boeing 747 jumbo jet retirement: Veteran pilot says goodbye to 'Queen of the skies'".

Story by Josh Dye at traveller.com.au

https://www.traveller.com.au/qantas-boeing-747-jumbo-jet-retirement-veteran-pilot-says-goodbye-to-queen-of-the-skies-h1pfl1

[Allan]

I flew with Mark Kelly many times when I was on the B747. He was a true gentleman.

Mark has a great story about the time he was taking off in an F-111 in the driving rain. He had a double engine failure while still on the runway. He was desperately trying to stop the aircraft because at the end of the runway was a cliff that dropped off into the ocean. The navigator blinked first and pulled the ejection handle. The crew module ended up floating down neatly on top of the burning wreckage that had crashed off the cliff and onto the rocks below.

[FlashDrive]

Must have been after my time with the Squadron ( Aircraft Engines )

WOW ... seconds to make a decision...do I or don't I ..... bang out ..!!

[Allan]

Well this whole situation obviously sucks, but on the bright side it leaves all the time in the world for astronomy, observing, and generally working on the astro property.

A lot of Qantas guys and girls will remain stood down for years to come. I’m thinking the A380 crew who have been told it will be at least three years. Lucky I just got off the big bus onto the B787 so I should see some flying return next year hopefully.

Qantas have said they need to reduce pilots by 220. A lot of those numbers will come from people who were within a year or two of retirement anyway, so will just pull the pin now.

Qantas was one of the strongest airlines in the world going into this fortunately. So with a lot of airlines collapsing before we get through this, I expect we will be in an even better position on the other side. When that happens no one knows. I suspect it’s going to take a vaccine before international ever gets back to what it was.

[Allan]

Hey Col. Yes Mark wasn’t happy with the Navigators decision to pull the handle. At the time he was full pressure on the brakes, so his butt was actually just off the seat. So when the capsule fired it hit him at something like 20G’s. He was permanently 2” shorter after that and had on going back problems.