Cessna Centurion (VH-SJG)

Parked tail into wind...just an observation.

I once saw an Air Express Bristol land on RWY 23 just as a cold front went through with gusts around 50 kts. Being a tail dragger they were unable to turn onto the taxiway so parked on the runway to unload. The problem came when they went to close the nose doors, they were unable too due to the wind. The runway had to be closed for several hours due to disabled aircraft, until the wind abated enough to close the doors.

Cheers Don! I hadn't thought of that issue with getting the Bristol's nose doors closed following cargo loading in strong winds! Also, thanks for the update in regard to the airfield buildings. I can recall going into the FSU at YFLI. Similar to FSU buildings at places like Ceduna in SA.

I remember as a young bloke during the late 60,s and early 70,s, on school holiday I helped loadind some DC3,s and bristols and a couple of DC4,s. I even got into the cockpit of a carvair one day. The bristol was by far the easist to load with a nice flat floor nicely at truck height. The DC3 floor as too slopey and the DC4 was very high requiring ramps and boards from the floor of the truck. I remember dozens of 22 lb boxes of fish sliding down the floor of the 3 just after you had stacked it all

Hi Don! Did the Carvair cockpit accommodate a Flight Engineer? I presume that access to the flightdeck in the modified Douglas was via a side ladder, similar to the arrangement in the Bristol?

Hi Chris, It was a long time ago but I think there were a few extra seats in the cockpit (maybe 3 or 4), but I don,t think there was a dedicated flight engineers position. The cockpit access was a lot easier than a Bristol. One thing I do remember well was how high the cockpit was above the ground, it must have taken a while for new crew to judge the flare