TAA Captain, David Spring-Brown talks about an incident where he nearly ran out of fuel in the DC-9 due to bad weather, flying from Brisbane to Melbourne diverting for a landing in Launceston
As a Load Controller at Brisbane Airport in the 70s-80s, MTOW was reached very quickly on a BNE-TSV legs when bad weather was on up north, full fuel required for max holding, Murphy always had it happen in school holidays, with a full load of PAX and all their holiday baggage. I can even remember a few times we actually weighed all the PAX and baggage to see if we could get below MTOW...bad move as that saw all up weight increase. In the end, the Captain asked me to take a certain number of bags off the loadsheet, but not physically off the aircraft. His call.......and he signed off on the loadsheet.
I was laughing all the way through. The FO poor guy.The pilots loved the DC9 back in those days. I remember coming into Melbourne one day from Adelaide & the pilot was skirting around a storm , flying it like a fighter. I loved it but I think there may have been a few people that didnt. Pilots had much more say on Fuel than today.
I didn't know of David's passing until very recently. I would have certainly attended the service and taken the opportunity to meet up with any of the old Aero Heritage attendees.
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As a Load Controller at Brisbane Airport in the 70s-80s, MTOW was reached very quickly on a BNE-TSV legs when bad weather was on up north, full fuel required for max holding, Murphy always had it happen in school holidays, with a full load of PAX and all their holiday baggage. I can even remember a few times we actually weighed all the PAX and baggage to see if we could get below MTOW...bad move as that saw all up weight increase. In the end, the Captain asked me to take a certain number of bags off the loadsheet, but not physically off the aircraft. His call.......and he signed off on the loadsheet.
Wow, Amazing story!
I was laughing all the way through. The FO poor guy.The pilots loved the DC9 back in those days. I remember coming into Melbourne one day from Adelaide & the pilot was skirting around a storm , flying it like a fighter. I loved it but I think there may have been a few people that didnt. Pilots had much more say on Fuel than today.
Glad you enjoyed it
I didn't know of David's passing until very recently. I would have certainly attended the service and taken the opportunity to meet up with any of the old Aero Heritage attendees.