Covid19, the airline industry. Where do we go from here?

a reply to: paraphi
This is similar to the scheme that has been passed by parliament in in Australia, although ours is a bit less generous with our amount being a bit over $1500 a month. Currently Qantas has stood down 23,000 of about 32,000 employees. Sadly worrying times for all of us.

a reply to: thebozeian

Hi bozeian,

Logged in after lurking on ATS for over a year because of your post about the quantas 747s. The post hit me in the soft spot. 747s are the queen of the skies to me, an icon, and my idolization of jumbos since i was a little boy.

I fly quantas several times a year back and forth between los angeles and Brisbane. It was, until recently, always a 744ER. The rides were always smooth and beautiful and you could always tell that a lot of love was given to the upkeep and maintenance on her.

To find out that you have been servicing quantas 747s, or used to, brought a huge smile to my face. Its interesting, as passengers you develop a relationship with some aircraft and I always flew the same 744ER. Quantas 744ER "Hervey Bay" VE-OEH. Everytime i flew to Australia, a place i love dearly, it was always the Hervey Bay. She was my girl. Sometimes I'd even fly in the exact same seat on some flights. I felt close to her in a way. I can only imagine the engineers and maintenance crew also developed relationships with the aircraft they serviced.

Just wondering if you ever did work on the "Hervey Bay" ,even if it was long before when i got to know her? And if so thank you for taking good care of her.

I like the 789 they replaced QF 15 & 16 (now QF55/56) its a comfortable and smooth bird too. But shes just not the same as that old queen.

Anyways, thank for the work you do on the Quantas feet.

Best regards,

Bassplyr


Now to go riding off into the sunset for another year

Your going already?You only just got here!!
Good to hear from you mate..Lots of scrub out west to do some nice horse riding..

a reply to: Blackfinger

Pm sent

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Pm sent too

a reply to: BASSPLYR
Thanks so much for that BASSPLYR its nice to get feed back from people on the other end. To quickly answer your question, yes I have indeed worked on VH-OEH many times, including in heavy maintenance. Somewhere on a hard drive of mine is a phone picture of me poking my head out of a removed passenger window on that aircraft on the right hand side near her rego and "Boeing 747-400ER" titles taken over 10 years ago during a D check in Avalon, Victoria, Australia. I have regularly worked the 747's even in recent years since I was assigned to an A-380 section some 10 years ago. Only a couple of weeks back on my last shift before stand down I carried out my most likely last ever 747 engine change on her sister ship VH-OEI. Just before having worked OEH in heavy I carried out work on one of the RR powered 744's VH-OJS in a back to back D check. I was involved in replacing a canted pressure bulkhead (I'm sure if you google "747 canted pressure bulkhead" you will find something) which was cracked, they were known to do that sometimes. Strangely enough my parents traveled to Europe on this very aircraft straight after this check and their seats were directly on top of the area I had worked on. Knowing that made me realize why doing my job properly mattered because suddenly I had a very vested interest.

Its a bitter twist of fate that just months out from 100 years the 747's that have been a part of that story for half of it, may very well not see that commemoration, assuming we even have one now. There's a lot about them I wont miss like flap lubes and crawling in really crappy tight spaces for inspections you dont need to do on more modern aircraft, or replacing wheels and brakes on the inboard aft body gears. But there are also a lot about them I'll miss, the smell for a start (yes aircraft have an individual smell), the look and sound of an RB-211 powered one with a low fuel load doing an engine run 3 shot plot when they swing on the nose gear under sudden power and begin "that" snarl. It always looked and sounded awesome. And no APU start up or shut down ever sounded as good, there's a reason we called it "firing up the Dragon" she just gets louder and louder until its an ear splitting hissing roar, and it always ends with that mournful "OOpphhh..." as the bleed valves unload the APU compressor on shutdown.
Yep I'm going to miss her terribly...

a reply to: thebozeian

Thank you for your response. Absolute pleasure to have flown on her, and now i know why the bird was so graceful and fair as she took me back and forth to my new home so many times. It was in large part in that You were helping to maintain her. And for that I sincerely thank you sir. You did a fantastic job. So many hopes and dreams for me were tied in with fond memories of the "Hervey Bay." I miss her too.

Small world we live in. Thanks for keeping me safe. My shout if i ever meet you one day.

a reply to: thebozeian

Interestingly thre bird that went to storage yesterday went to the Mojave Air and Spaceport. Someone got a great shot of her landing as she went by Cosmic Girl.

The cargo side of the industry is booming. FedEx is bringing stored aircraft back and adding 150 flights over the next month, to ferry medical supplies from Asia to the US.

www.bloomberg.com...

Boeing is jumpstarting the KC-46 and P-8 lines. Commercial lines and the Osprey, Wokka, and -139 lines stay shuttered for now.

IATA increased their loss estimate to $314B.

originally posted by: solidshot
Do you reckon Boeing can survive this? Surely at the very least they will need a huge bailout given what they were already going through with the 737 max?

The government won't let Boeing collapse as they make stuff for the military.

a reply to: thebozeian

The Solution to Our Inevitable Economic Destruction is Staring US in the Face . ACT NOW , or America as We Know it Will be NO MORE ........(

a reply to: Zaphod58
If you get a pic of that Zaph post it up here.

a reply to: BASSPLYR
I'll take you up on that BASSPLYR, I'm sure if you are in BNE sometime we could drag Blackfinger along as well, pretty sure he is up that way these days.
PS: Love your wallpaper, I grow Frangipani myself. The smell of the flower reminds me of my childhood. I have taken many grafts from plants grown by family members over the decades.

a reply to: thebozeian

I asked the guy that took it if he'd be willing to send a copy to me to pass on to you.

a reply to: thebozeian

I'm going to PM them to you. Private use only, but he said you're welcome to them.

a reply to: thebozeian

Its a deal. I'll PM you next time I head through BNE. Give you a few weeks head up. Blackfinger should come too. As for the frangies I collect em. They hold important memories for me too. And one whiff of them im pretty sure can drop my bloodpressure 20 points. Nothing like them. Also collect Heliconia too.

Anyways, you know the bars around BNE you pick one, I'll meet you there. Or if you're off work that day theres always someplace down by Roma or Queen Street maybe even up by fortitude, eagle junction, or caboolture. Whatever works.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Thanks mate appreciate it. I will take a look.

a reply to: Zaphod58

What is involved to bring an aircraft out of storage? I would think things like tires & fuel might get a bit stale after a while.