Looking back

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Steve
I used a roller from an old ST1200 now used for spares. It was a matter of going through my junk box for the rest. I think the spring is different, cant remember, but it works fine. When I start the GS the roller moves up ,then comes down a little bit to settle into a constant running position.

Dave and Ken

The only photo I took during my time with Ansett was this one below, wish I had taken more. Hope you have a HS748 in the museum as well, the 748 was sold around the world. I was surprised to find that up to a few years ago Air North were still operating them, some being X Mt Cook. When I was working for Mt Cook they spent a lot of time thinking of the move to the 146, instead the decision was for the ATR72, we had a cleaner on our shift who was brilliant at drawing weekly cartoons, the bottom two was about the company mucking around money wise.





There used to be a DC10 service from LA to Christchurch before the 748 had an improved repaint, quite a contrast getting of a DC10 onto the 748 to continue down South to Queenstown.


Ferrymead Heritage Park has a aviation part as well, here are a couple I took while showing my grandson around.

[Graham Ritchie]

Funny thing happened today, and it was through Facebook when a couple of old photos appeared of me long ago with my green noddy hat, which I must add to this day I still cant find however my niece up in Fort William, Scotland, which I have not met since 1994, posted back about my noddy hat......"myby gran used it as a tea cosy" ....that lot up in the highlands don't miss much that's for sure the world of the internet, amazing

PS I just thought does anybody here still use a..... "tea cosy"??

[Brian Fretwell]

I still use a tea cosy as i make tea in a teapot, but I don't use one as a hat.

[Lee Mannering]

A very nice thread this one. A good number of our coastal theatres over here still have the projectors in and not been switched on for years. Such a shame.

[Orestes Roumeliotis]

Its interesting at least for me, to watch something like this. Although the person on the flight its nostalgia, and that's really great. The first word that came to my mind was "Corrosion" and lots of it on the 146 Aircraft that Ansett New Zealand used , they were really bad. Another joy to watch for me in this video, was the flap operation. I remember a couple of us had the job of fitting them, as we were all new, it was a learning curve straight from the manual. Anyway as neither of us had a company approval to use a forklift, we decided to give it a go. After trying out the controls of the forklift, oft we went. It took four of us to fit them both, they were large and very heavy, so I had to be "super careful" on the forklift. After about 2 hours we had them fitted and rigged ready for testing. Ansett were a good company to work for I should add. I also was asked to help one of the guys to rig the ailerons. The person I was helping had spent 4 hours reading up. I also needed to have a quick read also, I said, right, how are you going to do it? he replied. I said "nope" just watch uncle haggis "me" and oft we went. Afternoon break he came to me and said, you are not bad for a old bugger ha ha, well you do learn something over the years ha ha. Well it went on its test flight and the report stated it was perfect , so there you have it, in life you are never through learning, anyway that's my thoughts anyway. They were good times and good people to work with.

I flew on one of those things, they used to do the Sydney to Canberra run. By the time you reached cruising altitude you were already descending back into Canberra. They were a nice plane to fly on though. They fit a real niche in the intercity commuter market for 80-100 seats for when you don't have enough PAX to fill a 737 or A320, but still need a plane that is big enough to take a decent amount of passengers.

[Graham Ritchie]

Well after watching this landing at London city airport UK, by I think Swiss Air on you tube yesterday, the BA 146 can certainly take it although in saying that, I wonder how the passengers felt afterwards.

[Ken Finch]

Hi Graham. I have been on a few flights from London City airport, mainly to Scotland and back. It is quite a white knuckle experience both landing and taking off. Looking out of the window, all you can see is the river. And the run way looks very short! I am old enough to remember it when it was the London docks and the bombing thereof. We lived at Woolwich at the time, spending days and nights in and out of the Anderson shelter in the garden! Ken Finch😳

[Graham Ritchie]

I noticed this morning that I am still getting feed back regarding this old video short I took long ago and placed on you-tube, 10.000 thousand views so far. I never thought there would have been a lot of interest in it, shows I was wrong. The 748 was, and seems still is a popular topic with many folk worldwide.

At the time I never followed what happened to them when we moved to using the ATR72 until I saw a video of a Air North "Yukon" 748 where it showed passengers boarding one and I recognize a heated door seal mod we did, this was done as under certain conditions the door seal would ice up and the cabin attendant would have to pour some warm water onto it so she could open the door. The heated mod fixed that funny how you pick up on things. When I inquired with the person who made the video, they got back to me to confirm the aircraft was indeed an X Mt Cook. They were an ideal aircraft for flying up there in the Yukon

[Graham Ritchie]

And this is the video I mentioned above of "Air North" flight from "Inuvik to Dawson City", looks great.

[Graham Ritchie]

Came across this film today, its very interesting to watch and to think how much has changed since it was made, just look at how well dressed people were in those days?

I only ever flew in a Pan Am 707 once and like in this film everyone was polite and well dressed and that was back in January 1975. The 707 was a very comfortable aircraft to fly in.

[Graham Ritchie]

Came across this song from 1971. At the time it was played on the radio a lot and remember it well , great song, how time passes.

[Ed Gordon]

That brings back some fond memories!

"Alone Again (Naturally)" is a song by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan. It was recorded in 1972 at the same time as his album Back to Front and was a worldwide hit.

The single spent six non-consecutive weeks at number one on Billboard's Hot 100 between late July and early September 1972 in America. It ranked number two in the year-end chart (behind Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face") and sold more than two million copies.

The song was involved in a 1991 court case which held that sampling of music can constitute copyright infringement.
Lyrics

"Alone Again (Naturally)" is a melancholy, introspective ballad. In the first verse, the singer contemplates suicide after having been left "in the lurch at a church"; in the second, he wonders if there is a God; finally, he laments the death of his parents. O'Sullivan has said the song is not autobiographical: for example, his mother was alive during its composition, and he was not close to his father, who was cruel to his mother and died when the singer was 11 years old.
Reception

The song received extensive radio airplay in the months after its release, and was critically praised. O'Sullivan commented that “Neil Diamond covered 'Alone Again (Naturally)' and said he couldn't believe a 21-year-old wrote it, but for me it was just one song I had written.”[7] Neil Sedaka stating when he covered the song in 2020 that he wished that he himself had written the song, because its complexity was more typical of someone much older than 21.

Chart performance
Between late July and early September 1972 in America the single spent six non-consecutive weeks at number one on Billboard's Hot 100 – interrupted by Three Dog Night's "Black and White" – and ranked no. 2 in the year-end chart (behind Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"). Both O'Sullivan's and Flack's singles spent six weeks at number one, 11 weeks in the Top Ten, 15 weeks in the Top 40 and 18 weeks on the Hot 100. In a decade-end survey as counted down on syndicated radio show Casey Kasem's American Top 40, using Billboard statistics, "Alone Again (Naturally)" ranked five, with Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" at number one. It also spent six weeks at number one on Billboard's Easy Listening chart. In April 1972 "Alone Again" peaked at no. 3 on the UK singles chart.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_Again_(Naturally)