http://www.aviationpartnersboeing.co.../techdata.html

 

During my first year as a DC-8 s/o at UPS, due to a loading SNAFU, we managed to stand a 747 on it's tail in Louisville. Someone with a sense of humor took a photo of it and ran a bunch of copies off on a Xerox machine and those copies started to find their way throughout the flight department and the rest of the facility. That was until management sent everyone a letter stating that if they found the guy spreading the photo around, they'd fire him on the spot.

I left UPS for FedEx in 1990 and shortly thereafter, sometime in 1991 or 1992 our loaders did the exact same thing with one of our DC-10's. Again, someone with a sense of humor took a photo and started to circulate it around the company. On the bulletin board in Flight Operations in Memphis, in a very prominent place (on that board) was this photo of the DC-10, resting on its tail. However, just to the left of the open 2L window (the captains, I believe), was a small note that said: "DC-10 lands on its tail after the captain throws his wallet out the window."

Therein, ladies and gentlemen, lies the major difference between the two companies.

 

"Speaking of loading correctly I remember seeing a 10 sitting on its tail at IND a number of years ago.I bet ya that was a ricky ricardo moment.
Lucy you got some splaining to do "

That was an MD-11 and I was supposed to fly it to Paris! Just before we left Ops our fligt controller called us over and showed us the camera on our parking spot. Sure enough it was a low speed rotate due to no nose gear tie down or ballast pallet inside prior to loading the tail end. We delayed for about 6 hours while it was inspected and then released. We made it to Paris in time to close out the Joyce. Back then the dollar went a lot farther but we still complained about 5 dollar beers!

An even better story is when Mt Pinatubo unloaded and a World DC-10 on the Subic ramp ended up on it's tail with the GPU dangling in mid air off of it's nose! There is a picture of it out there somewhere but I haven't seen it in a long time....

 

I thought that was what the metering at SDF was for, saving fuel sitting at the gate rather than buring it in the congo line for take off. Works great I'm sure. RIGHT!!!!

 

We use to have a pilot at FedEx who was renowned for his fuel saving efforts. He did stuff like: changing the cost index in the FMS; flying higher than optimum; starting down later than the computer predicted; and his first configuration move was always "Landing Gear Down"; and other annoying and dumb things, not the least of which was not using the APU to cool the cockpit (as well as the E&E compartment), in the middle of the summer, in Memphis, until right before engine start. He was also renowned for his wife-swapping parties and vast library of porn, but that of course, is a different story. Anyway, he was very senior and flew a most non-standard jet. Needless to say, he drove everyone he flew with nuts. His sole stated purpose was to save gas. Conversely, he was such a d!ck-head, that we had a bunch of guys who would say their sole purpose was to use all the gas that Bill McK...y saved. And, oh by the way, he never did manage to save even a gallon of fuel, because he flew such an inefficient airplane.

 

If this is the guy I think it is....he was thrown out of the navy on moral turpitude charges. And your right, he is a total Richard Cranium.

 

Jetjok, that's funny when you recall the antics of B.M. Do you recall that the Company used to maintain a list of captains and the amount of fuel they had used/saved. Needless to say BM always strove to be at the top of that list. Strangely (to him) he never was at the top of that list. Turns out that back in those days the S/O did the fuel log and most of the S/Os (who hated his guts) when they flew with BM would add some amount of "extra" fuel to his burn numbers. He just was never as efficient as he thought he was!

MacGuy2

 

He was a nice guy off the jet and we spent many enjoyable evenings together up in Minneapolis at the Greater Chicago bar and grill, however, he was a total jerk on the jet. My first day with him had us taking a pilot jumpseater from Memphis up to MSP. When we got off the bus, BM went immediately up the stairs and disappeared into the jet. It was then that the jumpseater, much senior to me, turned and asked me if I'd flown with Bill before. I told him "NO." He asked if I'd like a little advice, to make it easier on me (to fly with Bill), and of course I said "Yes." To which he replied "my advice to you is to start drinking heavily." And he was right. I never flew with him on the Boeing, but wasn't he the one who exchanged a pod engine oil pressure (or quantity) gauge with the #2 gauge, thereby screwing up the engine? Also, wasn't he the guy they locked in the rear end of one of the Falcons when he was a fairly new hire?

 

He was the one who, when the S/O advised him that one of the engines (727) had low oil pressure, instead of dealing with the low oil pressure issue, he pulled out his screw driver and instructed the S/O to swap the "bad" oil pressure gage for a "good" oil pressure gage. Turns out it wasn't the oil pressure gage, but the engine had low oil pressure and the delay in shutting the engine down resulted in a trashed engine. I think BM got some unpaid vacation for that little adventure.

As for getting locked in the back of a Falcon, don't know about that but I sure wouldn't be surprised if it was true.

He was definitely a legend...and I'm glad he is gone. He could make a good job miserable.

MG2

 

In ten months of flying out of ANC to Asia, I have flown only one leg that involved a re-dispatch flight plan.

FF