Eagle Air relic

[Dave Homewood]

Here is an interesting piece of ephemora found among my late Dad's effects. An $4 sized promotional card for Eagle Air, which was started by Mum and Dad's friend Malcolm Campbell in the 1980's (or was it the 1970's?)

Anyway, I thought it was a nice photo so I've scanned it to share here



There's a little about the plane itself on these sites
www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/bande.html

www2.taic.org.nz/InvDetail/94-021.aspx

[Martin Wienert]

Short story and tiny little pics...

www.eagleair.co.nz/default.asp?ShowCat=2&CategoryID=8

Martin

[flyjoe180]

Very interesting stuff. The old Bandit looks more attractive than today's Beech 1900.

[Dave Homewood]

At least the Beech is comfortable and quiet by comparison though. The Bandit was a rattle-trap.

[Bruce]

The Bandit rocks!.... (in more ways than one). The finest commuter airliner of its time, and the most suitable shorthaul aircraft for the NZ market for nearly 20 years. The Bandits revolutionised air transport in NZ as it made Eagle the first of the really successful third level operators (Helped by the change in air services licencing requirements). Sadly the type is virtually extinct here now
If you thought Eagle's Bandits were noisy Dave, a CityJet freight run with a plane load of mushroom trays in the middle of the night, with the heaters off, now THAT was an experience! I have a real soft spot for them as not only was my very first flight in ERU (Now a museum piece due to this important fact... ) but I also had to look after the CJ fleet of 4. Each had its own "personality" (and recurring defects) but they were solidly made, simple and easily maintained. They were quite sporty to fly too, I have 0.8hrs in my logbook flying TZN en route from Wellington to Auckland on its delivery flight to us!

[flyjoe180]

If you thought Eagle's Bandits were noisy Dave, a CityJet freight run with a plane load of mushroom trays in the middle of the night, with the heaters off, now THAT was an experience!

That seems to go for any turboprop of that class I think. The Metro is just as bad and you sure have to wrap up good. Beware the ice on the inside of the windscreen melting on descent too, wet pants at the othe rend is not a good look

[corsair67]

So Joe, the silk scarf is coming back into use again to keep the chill off freighter pilot's necks AND to wipe the water off the dash? ;D

[flyjoe180]

A towel would be more useful I feel. Bruce, did you only not use the heaters because of the freight content, ie mushrooms, fish etc? I only ask because we cant use ours due to the temperature sensors being in the cabin under a fibreglass surround to protect the fuselage, which means the sensors are shielded from the actual temperature which leads to burning freight...

[Bruce]

We had PVC / Canvas type cargo liners which blocked the cabin heater vents, so the restriction on use was to prevent burning cargo liners (I'm not sure whether CAA ever actually saw burn test data on the liners......) The cockpit heat still worked - sort of! Unfortunately the front row of pax seats where casual passengers sat was outside of the heat effects - I regularly flew down to Wellington for meetings etc in these "jump seats" and soon learned that the freight dogs wore ski jackets for a good reason! Since a lot of our freight was Salmon and mushrooms etc (we got freebees on a regular basis...) the lack of heat was actually a benefit.

[flyjoe180]

Cheers, bet youre glad you dont freeze anymore!