Ansett Airlines rememberance

[Grahame Hutchison]

James, If you are refering to the B727-200 VH-RMU, that is taken looking across to the beach, wigh just grass in the foreground, and the ATC building in the background. Back in the 1980s you could walk out along the full length of the Runway 16 extension out into the bay. Originally it was a wooden fence you could sit on top of, later replaced by the wire fence in the photograqph.

This is a similar shot with the original wooden fence.


And later the wire fence.


This is my cousin photographing while sitting on the Runway 16 wooden fence (the good old days).

[Grahame Hutchison]

Steve, I can remember flying on the Electra, Viscount and Friendship as a child. This is one of the few images I have of an Electra, in its later days as a cargo service, "The Wombats".

[James Smith]

Thanks Grahame, yes RMU. When I went out to the airport in those days my viewing spots were a choice between the upper deck of the northern or southern international aprons depending on the runways in use. Little did I know then of the wonderful accessible places to spot away from the terminals.

I used to love watching the Philippine Airlines DC 10 departing to Melbourne off runway 25. Wonderful climb performance! Another memory was when a Pan Am 747-100 was asked to make an early left turn after departing off runway 25 and did a nice arc around the old tower bearly crossing the Cooks River. Unforgettable jaw dropping sight.

[Robert Zweck]

Grahame,

The derelict DC-3 in the background looks like VH-RRA

[Radi K]

awesome pics guys!

[Philip Argy]

Very fond memories of almost 20 years as a Golden Wing member with around 1.2 million points lost when Ansett collapsed. I still blame Air NZ for sacrificing Ansett to save itself. And the Aust Government at Qantas' urging blocked Singapore Airlines from taking over Ansett. I thought at the time, and still believe, that it was a tragic decision for Australian commercial aviation.

[steve k]

110% agreed Philip.

[Andrew Ewen]

Earlier today I looked into this thread with some trepidation expecting it to have degenerated into the usual slanging match on "whose fault it all was" that the subject of AN always seems to end up in , instead I was pleasantly surprised to see that rather than playing the blame game people were genuinely posting their memories of AN and sharing some interesting history with us .

I hoped that it would stay that way , but sadly it seems that some one just could not resist and felt the need to point the finger in their post . I hope that future posters do not rise to the bait and continue this thread in the spirit in which it ran for the first few days . We all have our own views on what happened and who was to blame , but I think that it would be nice if for once we could leave that to one side and just concentrate on actual memories of AN .


On a different note , one thing I haven't seen so far in this thread is anyone posting memories of the old AN flying boats , does anyone have any images or stories they would like to share ?

[Philip Argy]

I worked at the Commonwealth Film Unit (later called Film Australia) when they made 'Last of the Sunderlands' - a terrific documentary about the old flying boats - I'm not sure where it is available now.

Patrick Kempe made his own private doco too - extracts are at if you want some nostalgia, but they weren't the Rose Bay variety.

[Andrew Ewen]

Thanks for the link Philip , and if anyone knows where to dig up a copy of the doco you mentioned I would be really grateful for a link . It is always great to come across a fresh view on a history I know too little about .