The plane at the beginning is the lone Hawker Siddeley HS 748 Srs.2 flown by Gabon Express as TR-LFW. This plane encountered mechanical problems on June 8, 2004 after departing Libreville Gabon, and was ditched just offshore while returning. 30 people on board, 11 survived, including the crew. This incident marked the end of operations for Gabon Express.
This reminds me of my time as relief manager Gabon for BCal in 1983.LBV was a weekly stop for flights from Lgw to Lun by A310..Air Gabon then operated F28. Libreville was a brilliant place to spend 3 months ..Thanks for bringing back good memories
One of the Caravelles crashed on landing somewhere in Africa. Just unfortunate nothing to do with bad maintenance...Bearing in mind these planes are over 50 years old at the time of the documentary, it's well serviced and a great aircraft.
An amazing and special airplane....I remember it from my childhod. when my mother and I went to Lake Garda with the Super Caravele...1970- 1980 STERLING AIRWAYS ...amazing memiries...and that staircase behind the engines...ohhhh ...))))
the story is that it was an DOUGOLAS engineer that got the idea to put the engines on the aft fuselage but EDOUGLAS was afraid of the structural problems it could devellope so the engineerv mowed to RFRANCE and aerospatiale they took up the idea and it seems to be a success by then.----
I noticed on the Caravelle Landing that the blocker doors for engine #2 did not deploy for reverse thrust. Here is the reason for engine #1 not smoking. It was down. The plane was being flown on one engine. Obviously they had suffered an in flight engine failure.
Rolls-Royce Avon power plants alike any Pratt & Whitney JT8D-1 and General Electric CJ-805-23C plants, do smoke when the CANs air flow is not proficient to enhance combustion the list for smoke is quite big, and smoking burners are normal of those designs, it wasn't a concern in those days. Having one power plant for a show flight with no payload is possible, but too risky for them to lose their investment if something goes wrong.
it just need another fuel control or just adjustments i n military pover setting those pratt & whitney is probably the best jet engine ever built many was running 40000 hrs without major overhaul just on condition with special cheks now and then.----
Wow, this video was quite a difference from the Air Canada B777 video two or three weeks ago!! Interesting to see older aircraft types and their particular operating conditions and procedures.
I respect them for flying these aircraft, to me these old aircraft with dials instead of digital screens look like death traps but the front of that HS748 defiantly reminds me of the nimrod that used to fly over my house out of kinloss till the UK decided to retire them. Still wouldn't feel as safe like that.
Last time I rode in the back of a DC-9, with the #2 engine screaming over my shoulder, it was plenty noisy back there. If the Avons seemed smoother, it's likely because the JT was generally a larger and more powerful engine.
Super cool little plane. Graceful, beautiful, and quaint. From the beautiful cockpit windows to the little bell that rings at rotation. Does anyone know what it's really for???
Black smoke coming from engine #1 LOL. Fucking awesome, these guys in Gabon pretty much still make the old classic liners work to the limit of their lifes.
Front gear tires dangerously worn. Wonder how many airframe hours were on this thing when the carrier acquired it. Maintenance standards in Gabon? Precarious scenario for sure! But a beautiful airplane for sure.
F/E: Flight Engineer. He sat perpendicular to and behind the F/O. Main objective was engine- and fuel management. As you can see, the F/E would also assist with throttle settings.
I have this video, it is super! Gabon Expresss was the world's last Caravelle passenger operator. Are any Caravelles still flying cargo, perhap in South America? I can't remember.
Re; James Stapletons comments - I'll go with that....Like the pilots SOH, and by the way what a place to fly. If only I'd not been such a scaredy cat when I was young.
HI JSUT PLANES. EXELENTE JOB :) BUT I HAVE TO ASK YOU WHY YOU HAVE NOT MADE A MOVIE OF AVIANCA(COLOMBIA), CAUSE IT WAS THE SECOND AIRLINE FOUNDED IN THE WORLD AFTER KLM. THANKS :)
A SUD Caravelle first on the late part of the video.. The Plane first on video is Convair 440 with turboprops? Like this video, good to see Caravelle on duty!
Very nice video! :) But the JT8D engine # 1 on this 11R caravelle is overdue for it´s repair*s* I would say that bearing station # 5 before the HPT. Very common fault on this engines....
Good point about the "new challenge". It's fun to know that the real PILOTS flying the planes (instead of computer sim playing modern pilots) are in Africa nowadays :)
The Aviation-Safety.net database says the plane here, registered in the clip as 3D-SEP s/n 251 crashed as 3D-KIK near Goma, Dem rep of Congo, on Aug 28, 2004. Fortunately with no casualties but it was a loss of airframe.
Fairly common with IL62 but dangerous...if you needed to go around with reversers open (clamshell), you could not close them because of the pressure of the air, i.e. going around on two instead of four engines. :o
the lift dumping devices vas put in ARMEED position before landing and when the mainwheel spun up an engaged the antiskid system the lift domping devices vas automatic deployed and the reversers could not be deployed in thev air the throttle had to be in idle position first and also the anti skid activated (as far as i remember)
