For the aviation fans

[Bonus]

The car rental return area at LHR is right next to the runway, and when those 747s take off you can only wonder at the power being unleashed.

 

It's a great spot for aviation enthusiasts, especially as you're probably going to be on one of those beauties within a couple of hours of returning your rental.

 

I think all the car hire companies have parking along that side of the runway. 

 

It's cloes now, but there used to be a road that cut between the airport and the maintenance area - grewta for seeinbg planes being towed right in front of you! 

[Walt Jabsco]

 

Nice historical pic at Jan Smuts airport. As the British Airways 747 is in a transitional livery from BOAC to British Airways, this dates the photo to 1974/75.

 

I think the obscured aircraft are a SAA 747 and Swissair DC10.

[Long Wheel Base]

I loved flying in a 747-400. When those 4 Rolls Royce engines spools up for take off it puts shivers into your spine.

Yeah the RR RB211 engine option was in my opinion the better option. But mainly because it sounded so damn good. The newer -400s came with the GE CF6 engines(as an option so you had the choice of GE or RR) and although they were a lot more reliable(not that the RR was unreliable) they just didn't make your spine shiver. 

The only issues(major ones) I ever had with the RR engines were the starter shafts shearing. But the GE, flip I don't think I have even booked an hours work on that thing. You just don't need to, they don't break.

[Robbie Stewart]

I remember back in 2003 during the President's Cup golf tournament at the Fancourt Links in George, there were a couple of daily flights of B747-200 that flew in to George Airport daily. That airport has never been so full before, or since. The mix of aircraft on the tarmac was just mind boggling. I recall Tiger Woods and Ernie's Gulfstreams among others. On the final day, I was torn between watching the game and watching the planes. When the light got too bad to see the golf, I drove up to the airport (up the road) and saw 2x SAA B747 parked at the terminal, with 2x B737 squeezed in between them. Having those planes so close to one another put the size of the B747 into perspective.

 

pic from Avcom (not my own):

 

[Long Wheel Base]

I remember back in 2003 during the President's Cup golf tournament at the Fancourt Links in George, there were a couple of daily flights of B747-200 that flew in to George Airport daily. That airport has never been so full before, or since. The mix of aircraft on the tarmac was just mind boggling. I recall Tiger Woods and Ernie's Gulfstreams among others. On the final day, I was torn between watching the game and watching the planes. When the light got too bad to see the golf, I drove up to the airport (up the road) and saw 2x SAA B747 parked at the terminal, with 2x B737 squeezed in between them. Having those planes so close to one another put the size of the B747 into perspective.

 

pic from Avcom (not my own):

 

66922_1070805343.jpg

and ZS-RSA on the left there.

 

*Edit: "That's ZS........"

          Not "and ZS.............."

Edited July 22, 2020 by Long Wheel Base

[Robbie Stewart]

and ZS-RSA on the left there.

 

*Edit: "That's ZS........"

          Not "and ZS.............."

 

That's the one that was so "ill-maintained" and was not airworthy that it needed to be replaced with a B777, right? According to a certain Prez, despite at the time of this pic it was so to speak out-the-box new.

 

edit - font for sarcasm

Edited July 22, 2020 by Robbie Stewart

[Long Wheel Base]

That's the one that was so "ill-maintained" and was not airworthy that it needed to be replaced with a B777, right? According to a certain Prez, despite at the time of this pic it was so to speak out-the-box new.

 

edit - font for sarcasm

Yip.

[MrJacques]

The last Quantas 747 flight:

 

[Long Wheel Base]

The last Quantas 747 flight:

 

Strava art

[dev null]

Jan Smuts110140623_140118194401361_4393088310049722399_n.jpg

 

Nice historical pic at Jan Smuts airport. As the British Airways 747 is in a transitional livery from BOAC to British Airways, this dates the photo to 1974/75.

 

I think the obscured aircraft are a SAA 747 and Swissair DC10.

 

When that photo was taken I was probably sitting in my Standard 1 classroom about 1 to 2 km from there. We stayed in Rhodesfield for about all of my childhood and early 20s.

[dev null]

Yeah the RR RB211 engine option was in my opinion the better option. But mainly because it sounded so damn good. The newer -400s came with the GE CF6 engines(as an option so you had the choice of GE or RR) and although they were a lot more reliable(not that the RR was unreliable) they just didn't make your spine shiver. 

The only issues(major ones) I ever had with the RR engines were the starter shafts shearing. But the GE, flip I don't think I have even booked an hours work on that thing. You just don't need to, they don't break.

 

Well, it seams the Brits just can't design any type of engine without some or other issue. Ask any Leyland owner about their experiences with their cars.

[Long Wheel Base]

Well, it seams the Brits just can't design any type of engine without some or other issue. Ask any Leyland owner about their experiences with their cars.

So our fleet of 400s all had the RR engines. Then as we started retiring them there was still a market to fly the jumbo so we got 2 newer ones (ZS-SBS and ZS-SBK and these 2 had the GE engines). When the exit check test flights were being done we would stand outside hanger 8 and watch them take off. On the one occasion, good old Scully Levine was doing the one test flight. Now Scully IS a die hard BOEING fan and didn't take lightly to SAA get busses. He got to the aircraft and said to us he would be using runway 21R so that meant it would be taking off over boksburg so it would be airborne when it passed us watching from Technical. He told us that he was going to give this aircraft the takeoff it deserves and give it max thrust(with basically like 10 people and little fuel it doesn't need much thrust). He said by the time he passed us the gear would be up. Someone still joked with him that this is not a harvard using a few hundred Metres to take off. Well I will remember that day for the rest of my life, the entire airport was shaking, the hanger doors were vibrating and true to his word he gave that beast the exit test flight it deserved. The time I saw the B1 bomber was about the only thing that came close to one of the greatest moments in my aviation career. 

We flew three -400s(ZS-SAZ, ZS-SBS and ZS-SBK) for a year or 2 after that before eventually getting rid of them to Transaero Airlines(not sure if they still flying those 3 aircraft, but I doubt it)

Edited July 22, 2020 by Long Wheel Base

[Bateleur1]

I remember back in 2003 during the President's Cup golf tournament at the Fancourt Links in George, there were a couple of daily flights of B747-200 that flew in to George Airport daily. That airport has never been so full before, or since. The mix of aircraft on the tarmac was just mind boggling. I recall Tiger Woods and Ernie's Gulfstreams among others. On the final day, I was torn between watching the game and watching the planes. When the light got too bad to see the golf, I drove up to the airport (up the road) and saw 2x SAA B747 parked at the terminal, with 2x B737 squeezed in between them. Having those planes so close to one another put the size of the B747 into perspective.

 

pic from Avcom (not my own):

 

66922_1070805343.jpg

 

Speaking of size comparisons.  I loved this pic BA took when they took delivery of their first A380.  They put the A380 and the A319 head to head for a pic here ...

 

[Robbie Stewart]

Speaking of size comparisons.  I loved this pic BA took when they took delivery of their first A380.  They put the A380 and the A319 head to head for a pic here ...

 

airbus-a380-a318-size-comparison-nose-to-nose.jpg

 

I flew back from Swaziland to OR Tambo a few years back on a Jetstream 41 from SA Airlink. When the pilot parked at his assigned spot, it was next to a BA A380...That planes outboard starboard engine was larger than the plane I just disembarked. It was hilarious to say the least. I stood in the bus waiting for the trip to the terminal, and marvelled at what man has achieved since the Wright brothers undertook their first flight that was shorter than the lenght of the A380.

[Spokey]

I remember back in 2003 during the President's Cup golf tournament at the Fancourt Links in George, there were a couple of daily flights of B747-200 that flew in to George Airport daily. That airport has never been so full before, or since. The mix of aircraft on the tarmac was just mind boggling. I recall Tiger Woods and Ernie's Gulfstreams among others. On the final day, I was torn between watching the game and watching the planes. When the light got too bad to see the golf, I drove up to the airport (up the road) and saw 2x SAA B747 parked at the terminal, with 2x B737 squeezed in between them. Having those planes so close to one another put the size of the B747 into perspective.

 

pic from Avcom (not my own):

 

 

 

66922_1070805343.jpg

Jeepers, awesome.....I used to fly little Lear 45’sin to George years ago, runway always looked short, imagine in that 74!

 

Reminds me of a night we flew Kuwait to Nice in the Global, chasing a fast aerie across Europe, him below us, we doing .85 and hardly catching him. Then arriving in Nice he does a go around off the admittedly challenging VOR A/ Visual approach and we are cocky in the cockpit and taking the micky as we land on a beauts clear night with him doing his go around ahead of us.......Turns out it was a Qatar Royal Flight 747-800, a big aerie into Nice at night off that approach!!! We felt a little silly after that!

[Robbie Stewart]

Jeepers, awesome.....I used to fly little Lear 45’sin to George years ago, runway always looked short, imagine in that 74!

 

Reminds me of a night we flew Kuwait to Nice in the Global, chasing a fast aerie across Europe, him below us, we doing .85 and hardly catching him. Then arriving in Nice he does a go around off the admittedly challenging VOR A/ Visual approach and we are cocky in the cockpit and taking the micky as we land on a beauts clear night with him doing his go around ahead of us.......Turns out it was a Qatar Royal Flight 747-800, a big aerie into Nice at night off that approach!!! We felt a little silly after that!

 

On another occasion, I was coming around runway 29 on the way to Mosselbay just in time to see Kulula on short finals. Now on that day the North Westerly berg wind was howling down the Outeniqua like only a Georgian will know, and this plane was crabbing in with the right wing aimed almost back to Vicbay (an exaggeration, but it looked waaay off from my perspective). I chose to stop at the other end of the road in-line with the threshold and watched the pilot make touch-down. Except he didn't. Instead the plane floated over the threshold and carried on going. It looked as if he was in ground effect. I climbed onto the bonnet at that stage and watched him carry on floating down the runway. I started thinking he is going to abort and rather do a go-around, but to my surprise horror he decided to smack that B737 onto the runway and smash reverse thrust and brakes. Methinks there were some soiled underpants on that plane that day.

 

That plane was still reverse thrusting as it turned onto the taxiway at the end of the runway on the other side. I became convinced I was witnessing a crash in motion, but luckily it ended well.

 

And on another occassion, I came back from Mosselbay to see the Airlink Embraer that overran the runway and ended up in that same road. Ja, George airport is interesting to say the least.