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Let's talk about 747s


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6 hours ago, flyboy0681 said:

I kind of liked them when I flew PSA back in the day.

Most pilots did.  Probably a great airplane to fly, but very hungry to feed and maintain.  Of all the airlines I could think of that flew them, most went out of business, merged, or just faded away.  Anyone remember Presidential Airlines?   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Airways_(scheduled)

Edited by Mooneymite
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18 hours ago, Ross Taylor said:

 I had a friend who flew 747s for Atlas, hauling freight.  I once asked him if he ever wanted to move to a passenger airline and he said, "I don't want to haul self-loading cargo..."  One of the funniest flight comments I've ever heard.  :-)

Flying people sux...Who cares if your shirt is wrinkled and you can wear lounge pants in cruise!

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On 1/26/2020 at 3:41 PM, flyboy0681 said:

My dream job came and went - Pan Am 747-100.

 

image.thumb.png.b7432f5afb17b129303ad24f16614238.png

Wow, this brings back memories! As a freshly minted A&P working for Evergreen in Marana, AZ, I did the "D" check for an ex-Pan AM 747 (SN#2?) somewhere around 1988-98. We removed the PAX interior and converted it to cargo. Found quite a few foreign coins, and other dodads... and even a brand new pack of Lucky Strikes.  I remember one of my jobs was to to crawl through the fuel tanks to cut the (hi-loks?) off holding the engine pylons... It was an unbelievable job crawling through the fuel tanks, squeezing through a rat maze to get to the pylon area...I was much skinnier then. I remember going at the lok collars with a die grinder/cutoff disk for a few minutes and looking over and seeing I was sending a zillion sparks into a puddle of jet fuel that hadn't evaporated out.... somebody up there was watching out for me because had that ignited there is no way I could have gotten out of there. It may very well have been this plane. We also worked on the 747 that gets "exploded" in one of the Die Hard movies.  I remember trying to get a man-lift high enough to change the tail light on top of the vertical....man that was unstable and scary...amazing how high off the ground that thing is. 

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20 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Wow, this brings back memories! As a freshly minted A&P working for Evergreen in Marana, AZ, I did the "D" check for an ex-Pan AM 747 (SN#2?) somewhere around 1988-98. We removed the PAX interior and converted it to cargo. Found quite a few foreign coins, and other dodads... and even a brand new pack of Lucky Strikes.  I remember one of my jobs was to to crawl through the fuel tanks to cut the (hi-loks?) off holding the engine pylons... It was an unbelievable job crawling through the fuel tanks, squeezing through a rat maze to get to the pylon area...I was much skinnier then. I remember going at the low collars with a die grinder/cutoff disk for a few minutes and looking over and seeing I was sending a zillion sparks into a puddle of jet fuel that hadn't evaporated out.... somebody up there was watching out for me because had that ignited there is no way I could have gotten out of there. It may very well have been this plane. We also worked on the 747 that gets exploded in on e of the Die Hard movies.  I remember trying to get a man-lift high enough to change the tail light on top of the vertical....man that was unstable and scary...amazing how high off the ground that thing is. 

This particular picture has some meaning for me. When I was ten years old in 1970, I wrote to Pan Am public relations asking for information on their planes (as any ten year old aviation enthusiast would) and within a week they sent back a manila envelope containing a 3x5 color glossy print of this very picture as well as the one of a 747 parked next to a 707. I hadn't thought about that until now.

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On 1/28/2020 at 2:38 PM, Captnmack said:

Flying people sux...Who cares if your shirt is wrinkled and you can wear lounge pants in cruise!

When you get down to brass tacks doing this for a living it all comes down to these:

 

What is the total compensation?

How many days off a month?

How many nights a month away from family?

How much back side of the clock, and the degree to which someone can tolerate sleep on-command in odd times or places. which determines how much of a zombie you are on your days off, possibly contributing to an early demise.

The sexiness of what airplane will fade fast, very, very fast, if any of the above create an imbalanced or unhealthy life.

 

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24 minutes ago, Immelman said:

When you get down to brass tacks doing this for a living it all comes down to these:

 

What is the total compensation?

How many days off a month?

How many nights a month away from family?

How much back side of the clock, and the degree to which someone can tolerate sleep on-command in odd times or places. which determines how much of a zombie you are on your days off, possibly contributing to an early demise.

The sexiness of what airplane will fade fast, very, very fast, if any of the above create an imbalanced or unhealthy life.

 

Nope.

This may be true for 99%, but it never was for me.

I've loved every minute of flight time God has blessed me with.  Navy, airline, fractional, G.A., banner towing....

I've always resented people who view flying as "just a job".

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32 minutes ago, Mooneymite said:

I've always resented people who view flying as "just a job".

I hear you, and I am not suggesting flying is 'just a job'.

We're lucky to do what we do. But what I am saying is this: when it is one's livelihood, the work/life balance is something that has to be considered over the sexiness of the airplane. As best as I can tell, the days of flying a 74 for good pay & schedule are over (aside from UPS?) here in the states. Maybe I am wrong.

Edited by Immelman
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