A flight to forget
Oh what a flight
Okuk's Last Flight
B707 Anecdotes
B707 Introduction
A Biblical Story
A Biblical Story 2
A Biblical Story 3
Forbidden Fruits
Joe's Jolly (Poem)
The Golfer
Suitably Restrained
PX Advertisment 1
PX Advertisment 2
PX Advertisment 3
PX Article 1
PX Article 2
PX Article 3
The Check Ride
First and Last Flt.
First Command
DC3 KOK - POM
The Holiday
Friends at Last
History of P2ANQ
Ferry Flight
Crayfish
FO Cassanova
Larry Blackman
Secret Revealed
Airbus A300
Cargo Capers
Doing it Differently
Side Slip
Larry Blackman
4th Floor Memo
International Arsonist
Office Works
Thru Eyes of a Hostie
Airline Anecdotes
THE AIRBUS A300 B4 Posted by Ian Fischer
After PX took over the A300-B4 from the then Trans Australian Airways (TAA) back in November 1984, it was regularly flown thereafter from Port Moresby to Melbourne Tullamarine airport for maintenance.
It was a pretty cushy job positioning it down and back and meant a few days for the crew in Melbourne.
The B4 was a real performer at light weights and such were the conditions when we started the return flight on a winter’s morning at a low low temperature of five degrees!!
Prior to take off, ATC asked us what altitude we could be at abeam the Tower. As we were departing towards the south and then a right hand turn back towards the north we made a fairly brave guess - which was all it was - and came up with a figure of FL220!
The guy in the Tower squeaked back “confirm FL220?” to which we responded in a hopefully confident manner “affirmative, if there is no restriction on our climbing IAS”
I always remember his highly suspicious and sceptical response “…. that is a requirement, report abeam the Tower at FL220!”
At this stage we were having serious doubts if we had committed ourselves to an unachievable commitment but full of bravado and much hope, we pessimistically launched ourselves off the runway, sat the speed on V2 - about 125 knots I think - and watched the impressive rate of climb hover around some 6,000 feet per minute!
In a wide sweeping right hand turn involving a few minutes, we killed the FL200 with no problem whatsoever and ever onwards and upwards actually reached FL250 abeam the Tower.
I don’t know what our climb attitude was but it must have looked pretty impressive as the Tower guy said “Thanks Air Niugini …. that was worth watching!”
The B4 was a beautiful machine and did a tremendous job being the first twin engine wide bodied aircraft in the nearby Asian and Pacific region to fly internationally.
After PX took over the A300-B4 from the then Trans Australian Airways (TAA) back in November 1984, it was regularly flown thereafter from Port Moresby to Melbourne Tullamarine airport for maintenance.
It was a pretty cushy job positioning it down and back and meant a few days for the crew in Melbourne.
The B4 was a real performer at light weights and such were the conditions when we started the return flight on a winter’s morning at a low low temperature of five degrees!!
Prior to take off, ATC asked us what altitude we could be at abeam the Tower. As we were departing towards the south and then a right hand turn back towards the north we made a fairly brave guess - which was all it was - and came up with a figure of FL220!
The guy in the Tower squeaked back “confirm FL220?” to which we responded in a hopefully confident manner “affirmative, if there is no restriction on our climbing IAS”
I always remember his highly suspicious and sceptical response “…. that is a requirement, report abeam the Tower at FL220!”
At this stage we were having serious doubts if we had committed ourselves to an unachievable commitment but full of bravado and much hope, we pessimistically launched ourselves off the runway, sat the speed on V2 - about 125 knots I think - and watched the impressive rate of climb hover around some 6,000 feet per minute!
In a wide sweeping right hand turn involving a few minutes, we killed the FL200 with no problem whatsoever and ever onwards and upwards actually reached FL250 abeam the Tower.
I don’t know what our climb attitude was but it must have looked pretty impressive as the Tower guy said “Thanks Air Niugini …. that was worth watching!”
The B4 was a beautiful machine and did a tremendous job being the first twin engine wide bodied aircraft in the nearby Asian and Pacific region to fly internationally.
