AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
I have mentioned several times in my memories about my very fortunate relationship with Boeing in the late 60s and 70s. In my positions with Wien as station manager, almost unbelievable but lets go from there.
In the late 60s, we took delivery of a leased 737, 461GB, owned by GTX Booth (we all called it golf balls). It was a normal passenger aircraft without the large cargo door topside on the left side. Instead, it had the two self contained boarding stairs. Normally, the seating on the early 737s was set at 113 passengers but on this aircraft, we ran 81 seats with a removable bulkhead and floor loaded US mail up front, all loaded through the front passenger door. Normally this mail was boxes of canned food and supplies for local towns. Removing the bulkhead allowed us to go back to 113 seats on a charter or special flight.
Once we got into winter operations just after we started flying it, I noticed some problems with construction. Since it was the first time a 737 operated in scheduled service in the Arctic, there was always a Boeing engineer on board to observe the operations.
On one of our first trips well below zero F, I noticed the seal around the front passenger door (that we used to load the mail) was breaking up due to extended cold temperatures with the door open. Right after deplaning, the cabin crew closed the back door so that seal stayed soft. I finally found the engineer and showed him the difference between the two and he made a note of the problem and it was only days before Wien got a replacement seal of different material and there after, all 737s built had the new product. We noticed the same problems on the lower baggage doors too and they were changed. There were other problems but will not go into them.
Extended cold can do odd things to a newly built aircraft series. I suspect that is one reason Wien in Fairbanks was chosen to do the cold soak testing of the Concorde before it went into service. You can find out a lot about an aircraft that sits on the ground with the doors open at 50 degrees below zero F and how they will crank up the next day without heat and go around the patch a couple of times.
It really surprised me when I got a letter from a VP of Engineering from Boeing with a copy to the owner of the airline thanking me for my help. Gee, all I was doing was taking care of our aircraft. Once Boeing and Wien were satisfied with the aircraft, the Boeing engineer ridealong was discontinued.
Later, when we received our own 737s, Boeing did the gravel certification for the 737s at Fort Yukon, Alaska with one of our aircraft. I was not around that operation but heard a lot of what went on. Things like getting a 737 stuck in soft gravel, getting very close to going over the end of the runway, things like that, nothing serious. By the way, Alaska Airlines is flying one or more of the old Wien gravel certified 737s and I understand maybe one is working in Asia somewhere but I could be wrong on that. We used to lease one of our 737s out to Aloha Airlines during our off season which was their busy time. Nice to see our colors in Hawai'i since I did so much work on Maui.
I often got letters from the VPs at Boeing asking all kinds of questions and at one time, 3 VPs and their wives flew to Barrow and got a personal tour of the area needless to say. Later on at Prudhoe Bay, several flew up with their wives for a tour which I took care of myself since I had full authority from the oil companies to go anywhere on the north slope that I wanted to without prior approval if I felt it would help the oil companies or Wien. We always stopped at BP and ARCO headquarters for coffee and to meet the head man of course. That was really fun for me and met some really great people.
As a special gift, one of the guys sent me a solid plastic model of the Boeing 727 in company colors with a 2 foot wingspan (which was delivered to me by special messenger in front of my boss, the VP of sales for Wien. He didn't have one and boy was he mad
) along with some really fancy lighters (4 as I recall from different guys) and silver 737 tie tacks. I really cherish them needless to say. That is one reason I believe I was invited to the ceremony at Boeing when the Emir of Kuwait took delivery of his 747 SP and the reception later where met him personally.
One VP of development put together a package of interesting aircraft they had on the board designed as heavy lift cargo aircraft. The designation was the 759. Following is a link to three of those sketches of those aircraft. Note the max weight of them and especially the 759 with the 747 overlay.
http://supercub.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album93
Some of the other 759 series not shown were designed to haul liquid crude oil and liquid natural gas out of north Alaska and Canada in case the oil pipeline was not approved. More sketches are available for those that might be interested. Just e-mail or PM me or I can add them to the gallery.
Back in the early days of jet airliners, they all smoked like "H E double toothpicks" as we all know. That is one reason the 707s were shut down in the US. Too expensive to
re-engine. Needless to say, we were required to re-engine all five of our 737 that had the old style engines. They went to a higher thrust and better engine which helped us but with no smoke. That really made the environmentalist happy because there was no more smoke to be seen.
Funny part is, the engines burned 15% more fuel and more pollution but you just couldn't see it. Wien got some kind of acknowledgment for being the first airline in the world flying 737s that had modified their entire fleet to new engines. What was not said in the article was that we only had 5 737s.
Yes, guys, just another part of an unbelievable aviation life. I do miss the fun of flying the good old Cubs though and especially enjoy the pros and cons of wheel/three point landing as I have been reading.
Thank goodness the 737s didn't have a tail wheel or I would sure jump in and catch all kind of flack.
Such a great group of multi capable pilots and from what I have read, all are correct in the way they believe.
In the late 60s, we took delivery of a leased 737, 461GB, owned by GTX Booth (we all called it golf balls). It was a normal passenger aircraft without the large cargo door topside on the left side. Instead, it had the two self contained boarding stairs. Normally, the seating on the early 737s was set at 113 passengers but on this aircraft, we ran 81 seats with a removable bulkhead and floor loaded US mail up front, all loaded through the front passenger door. Normally this mail was boxes of canned food and supplies for local towns. Removing the bulkhead allowed us to go back to 113 seats on a charter or special flight.
Once we got into winter operations just after we started flying it, I noticed some problems with construction. Since it was the first time a 737 operated in scheduled service in the Arctic, there was always a Boeing engineer on board to observe the operations.
On one of our first trips well below zero F, I noticed the seal around the front passenger door (that we used to load the mail) was breaking up due to extended cold temperatures with the door open. Right after deplaning, the cabin crew closed the back door so that seal stayed soft. I finally found the engineer and showed him the difference between the two and he made a note of the problem and it was only days before Wien got a replacement seal of different material and there after, all 737s built had the new product. We noticed the same problems on the lower baggage doors too and they were changed. There were other problems but will not go into them.
Extended cold can do odd things to a newly built aircraft series. I suspect that is one reason Wien in Fairbanks was chosen to do the cold soak testing of the Concorde before it went into service. You can find out a lot about an aircraft that sits on the ground with the doors open at 50 degrees below zero F and how they will crank up the next day without heat and go around the patch a couple of times.
It really surprised me when I got a letter from a VP of Engineering from Boeing with a copy to the owner of the airline thanking me for my help. Gee, all I was doing was taking care of our aircraft. Once Boeing and Wien were satisfied with the aircraft, the Boeing engineer ridealong was discontinued.
Later, when we received our own 737s, Boeing did the gravel certification for the 737s at Fort Yukon, Alaska with one of our aircraft. I was not around that operation but heard a lot of what went on. Things like getting a 737 stuck in soft gravel, getting very close to going over the end of the runway, things like that, nothing serious. By the way, Alaska Airlines is flying one or more of the old Wien gravel certified 737s and I understand maybe one is working in Asia somewhere but I could be wrong on that. We used to lease one of our 737s out to Aloha Airlines during our off season which was their busy time. Nice to see our colors in Hawai'i since I did so much work on Maui.
I often got letters from the VPs at Boeing asking all kinds of questions and at one time, 3 VPs and their wives flew to Barrow and got a personal tour of the area needless to say. Later on at Prudhoe Bay, several flew up with their wives for a tour which I took care of myself since I had full authority from the oil companies to go anywhere on the north slope that I wanted to without prior approval if I felt it would help the oil companies or Wien. We always stopped at BP and ARCO headquarters for coffee and to meet the head man of course. That was really fun for me and met some really great people.
As a special gift, one of the guys sent me a solid plastic model of the Boeing 727 in company colors with a 2 foot wingspan (which was delivered to me by special messenger in front of my boss, the VP of sales for Wien. He didn't have one and boy was he mad
) along with some really fancy lighters (4 as I recall from different guys) and silver 737 tie tacks. I really cherish them needless to say. That is one reason I believe I was invited to the ceremony at Boeing when the Emir of Kuwait took delivery of his 747 SP and the reception later where met him personally.One VP of development put together a package of interesting aircraft they had on the board designed as heavy lift cargo aircraft. The designation was the 759. Following is a link to three of those sketches of those aircraft. Note the max weight of them and especially the 759 with the 747 overlay.
http://supercub.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album93
Some of the other 759 series not shown were designed to haul liquid crude oil and liquid natural gas out of north Alaska and Canada in case the oil pipeline was not approved. More sketches are available for those that might be interested. Just e-mail or PM me or I can add them to the gallery.
Back in the early days of jet airliners, they all smoked like "H E double toothpicks" as we all know. That is one reason the 707s were shut down in the US. Too expensive to
re-engine. Needless to say, we were required to re-engine all five of our 737 that had the old style engines. They went to a higher thrust and better engine which helped us but with no smoke. That really made the environmentalist happy because there was no more smoke to be seen.
Funny part is, the engines burned 15% more fuel and more pollution but you just couldn't see it. Wien got some kind of acknowledgment for being the first airline in the world flying 737s that had modified their entire fleet to new engines. What was not said in the article was that we only had 5 737s.Yes, guys, just another part of an unbelievable aviation life. I do miss the fun of flying the good old Cubs though and especially enjoy the pros and cons of wheel/three point landing as I have been reading.
Thank goodness the 737s didn't have a tail wheel or I would sure jump in and catch all kind of flack.
Such a great group of multi capable pilots and from what I have read, all are correct in the way they believe.
