TWA Packet package delivery

O

Okami

Charter Member
Hi all,

Never really posted here before, so I thought about making a good first one. A couple of days ago, I noticed the new package for the C-82 - which had been languishing in my flight hangar for quite a while due to technical problems - so I decided to give her a good outing. Many thanks to Magoo for posting the updated models and flight dynamics!

The story of TWA Flight 1904.

(Background: between 1956 and 1972, Fairchild C-82A N9701F, once 45-57814 on the USAF's inventory, shipped spares and replacements around for TWA in Europe. Here's the story of what might well have been one of her flights. Now held by the Hagerstown Aviation Museum, she is the only flyable example left of her kind.)

Orly Airport, Paris, November 1962. One Wednesday, one of TWA's relief pilots gets a call in his hotel room. "Hello?" "Jack, dispatch here. We've got a call from our maintenance crew in Lisbon. Flight 900 came in an hour ago with a failed no. 2 engine, and maintenance say they can't repair it. Can you come in to fly a replacement engine out in the Packet? We're already loading her up, scheduled push is 0930 local." "OK, I'll be there."

45 minutes later, Jack arrives at the dispatch office. Mark, his FO, is already going through the paperwork, and little over an hour later, they and their two other crewmembers are going through the checklists in their cockpit, as raindrops run down the windscreens in front of them.



"Should clear up once we're past Chateaudun," Mark replies to Jack's annoyed sigh. Minutes later, the four have gone through all their pre-flight checklists and have started the engines. As Charles, their flight engineer, monitors the instruments, Jack requests Orly control for clearance. "Orly Ground, TWA 1904. Taxi to runway 26 via taxiway E2 A C N." "TWA 1904, roger, Orly Ground."



After a couple of minutes, the C-82 halts at runway 26. As they go through their last pre-take off checklist, the crew contacts Orly Tower. "TWA 1904 at runway 26, requesting clearance for take-off." "TWA 1904, hold back. Traffic is Convair 440 on approach." "Orly Tower, TWA 1904, roger that."



A minute later, the Convair touches down on runway 26. At the first taxiway it taxies off the runway and radioes the tower. "Swissair 140, contact Ground" "Swissair 140, roger, Orly Tower" "TWA 1904, cleared for take-off" "TWA 1904, roger, Orly Tower."
The C-82 taxis onto the runway and comes to a halt. Its brakes set, the crew throttle up the engines, then release the brakes. Slowly, the Packet begins to roll down the runway...

To be continued...
 
A new lease of Life!

Nice to see a little weather in the story, too. Keep it coming...
 
Thanks! :)

Here's the second part:

... At first, the Packet is rather slow in gaining speed, with the couple of thousand of pounds worth of freight she's carrying, but little before halfway the runway she reaches her V1. "Rotate"



With the Packet slowly but surely climbing out over the runway, the crew retract the old crate's gear and flaps. Changing frequencies, Orly departure directs the crew onto a course of 225 and clears her to 10000 feet.



At first, the rain and winds batter the aircraft, but soon she manages to climb out over the weather. Once they reach their cruising height, the crew level the Packet off and throttle back the engines into their cruise settings.



"See? It's starting to clear up now," Mark remarks after a few minutes. The firm overcast from Paris indeed seems to make way for broken clouds with increasingly wider gaps. "It should remain that way until at least past Limoges, but there might be some scattered showers between Limoges and the Portuguese border."



"So, what's the story?" Jackson, the navigator, asks, as he leans in between the two pilots. "Another Jetstream blowing one of her turbo compounds?" "Nope," Jack chuckles, "seems like a 707 fried one of its hairdriers." "Now, that doesn't happen very often..."



Arriving over the Chateaudun beacon, the crew change course. As they switch to the Amboise beacon, some 40 miles in front of them, Jackson looks at his charts. "Anyway, I made my calculations, at our present speed our ETA in Lisbon is about 1610 local." "Still five hours to go then?" Charles reacts. "Afraid so, she's not exactly a Connie, is she...?" Jack chuckles.

To be continued...
 
Part 3...

As the Packet passes Amboise, the crew gets a radio report from its base in Orly. "Weather update", Jackson tells the pilots.



"Looks like we've got clear skies from Limoges all the way to the Pyrenees, but from there on it's all headwinds, from 40 knots at 8000 feet up to 50 at 12000 feet, and broken clouds with a cloudbase at 5000 feet towering up to 8000 feet. I've done some calculations, and with those headwinds we don't have enough reserves for a high-speed cruise." "How will that affect our ETA?" "Probably closer to 5 PM than to 4, I'm afraid." "But no headwinds until the Pyrenees? Thanks."



Once past Limoges, the crew turn their Packet towards the next waypoint, namely Sauveterre near Bordeaux. After about 40 minutes, they notice the Garonne river winding its way through the landscape below them.



From Sauveterre, the Packet heads out towards the Dax NDB. As the plane approaches this one, the crew can see the Pyrenees stretching in front of them. Luckily their routes bypasses the vast chain of mountains, taking them over the Bay of Biscay instead.



On their way to the next beacon, namely San Sebastian in Spain, the Packet passes over Biarritz. Tuning in on the Biarritz radio frequency, the crew hear Biarritz approach talking in a BKS flight, an Elizabethan arriving out of Heathrow. Looking out of his side window, Jack notices the sun glancing off something metal. "BKS 721, got a visual on the runway" "Roger, BKS 721, you are ten miles outbound. Contact Biarritz tower." "Yup," Jack remarks, "that's the BKS flight down there. At least they're almost on the ground - we're still over three hours away from Lisbon..."



To be continued...
 
Thanks, all! Here's part 4:

Reaching the Spanish border, the Packet begins to experience some slight turbulence coming from the Pyrenees. Changing frequency to the San Sebastian approach, the crew gets a traffic warning. "TWA 1904, traffic at 10 o'clock, 4 miles at 7000 feet. Look out for a de Havilland Heron." "Aviaco 107, traffic at 9 o'clock, 4 miles at 10000 feet. Fairchild Packet." "TWA 1904, got the traffic." "Aviaco 107, Packet in sight."



Once past San Sabastian, the crew switch frequencies again, this time to Madrid control. A few routine messages are exchanged. Soon, as they fly into a thick layer of clouds, Jack and Mark notice a marked drop in their airspeed. "Headwinds." "Yup, any slower and we'll be flying backwards."



"No way for us to avoid the worst of the headwinds, Jackson?" "Afraid not, Jack. The winds are even stronger above us, and I would advise against descending, there are still some Sierras ahead, some up to 8000 feet high. Clouds are locally up to 10000, so descending wouldn't be a good idea." "I see. Chuck, how's our fuel?" "I'll get back to you on that, Jack."



Half an hour later, Jackson gets back to the pair. "Another weather update from the company. Lisbon's currently reporting IFR conditions, but they're expecting it to have cleared up by the time we get there. Still strong headwinds reported for most of our route, but the winds are a lot less stronger past the Sierras than they were an hour ago. We might even catch some tail winds." "Good to hear that. What does that do for our ETA?" "4 o'clock, 4.30 at the most - depends on our cruise speed."



"Right," Charles cuts in. "I've re-calculated our fuel, and taking in the changing wind direction into account, we've got enough fuel for a high-speed run into Lisbon, with enough reserve for our alternative." "Thanks Chuck. Let's see what this old crate can do, shall we?"



To be continued...
 
Finally, here's the final part of TWA 1904's journey. I had hoped to post it yesterday, but things got in the way.

After passing the Zamora beacon, TWA 1904's crew change frequencies and set course for the next one at Formosa, at the Spanish side of the Spanish-Portuguese border. As they cross the border, Madrid hands them over to Lisbon control. Jackson notifies the pilots: "We're nearing the Serra da Estrela range. We're well clear of them, but I do advise gaining altitude, as we might catch some turbulence here." "Roger, Jackson."



Passing the hilly terrain, Jack notices a river to his left side. "Jackson?" "Way ahead. That's the Zêzere river, we're about 90 miles north-east of Lisbon. Course 210."



About ten minutes later, as they start to approach Lisbon, Jack begins to throttle back the engines and puts the Packet into a descend, while Charles and Mark start to go through their checklists. "TWA 1904, Lisbon Tower. You are cleared to LIS beacon. Descend unrestricted, QNH is 1010 mb. Wind is 194/15 knots. Visibility is 50 miles, cloudbase 1/8 at 2000 feet. No delay expected for approach to runway 21." "Lisbon tower, TWA 1904. Roger. Now leaving 10000 feet. QNH is 1010 mb."



Breaking through the clouds about 20 miles north of Lisbon, Jack and Mark can see the airport in the distance. They descend to 2500 feet and slow the Packet to about 120 knots. As the flaps are halfway extended, Jack can see they are right on the approach into runway 21. "Gear down." With a clunk, the gear doors open, and the wheels begin to drop. Charles slightly increases the throttle to compensate for the increased drag. "Lisbon Tower, TWA 1904. We are ten miles out, 2000 feet. Over." "Roger, TWA 1904. Cleared to land. Wind at 197, 15 knots." "TWA 1904, wilco."



Having looked at the runway, Jack decides to put the Packet down about a thousand feet past the treshold, so they can clear the runway faster. As they touch down, the old crate rattles and creaks, throwing up smoke as its tyres touch the asphalt. As Charles eases down the throttles, Jack begins to apply the brakes. "She sure makes some noise, doesn't she?" "Yeah, I wonder how long she's going to remain in service. Surely they're bound to give us a Connie one of these days instead?" Steering off the runway, Lisbon tower radios the crew. "TWA 1904, on ground 55. Cleared to the parking area." "Roger, Lisbon tower."



Taxying towards the apron, the crew can see the stricken 707 standing in front of the maintenance hangars. Even from a distance, they can see the ground crews have already taken the engine number two apart. "Boy, looks like she won't be flying for a while. Any word on a replacement?" "Yup," Charles reacts. "Jocko and his crew are flying it over from Idlewild. Jocko actually bet he would be here faster in his 707 than we from Paris with our Packet - so it looks like he will be buying the drinks tonight!"



As soon as they park their plane in front of the maintenance hangars, Jack and his crew are greeted by the maintenance crews. "Hi guys, you certainly took your time getting here." is the first thing they hear...



Thus ends another of old Ontos' flights. Perhaps we'll see Jack and his crew at work again at some time in the future. Who knows?
 
Sounds of LOUD hand clapping and yells of joy!! Safe at the destination, mission accomplished. Great joy and good work.

Take care.

Ed
 
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