A Salute to the Shorts

[SDdriver]

Just wondering how many of you out there have flown the Shorts and what you thought about it?
Any cool and interesting stories that you might have while flying the Shorts?

I loved flying that plane. As ugly as it was, it would grow on you really quick. I had never seen one when I got the call to go fly one, all I knew is that it was a turbo-prop and I was going to get typed on it and log PIC. When I looked it up on the computer after I got the phone call for the interview, I thought OH MY GOD, THAT THING IS NASTY LOOKING. I am never going to pick up chicks flying this thing , but I have to say, I think I got more women flying that shorts than I did flying the King Air. When I would take one flying, we would get to the airport and they would see it and say, Oh lord I am not getting in that thing, that thing actually flyes? But after the flight it seems their perception was totaly different, also nothing like having them sit in that jumpseat, it was nice when you had to operate the tiller, it was placed in just the right spot for that case.

Well I am sure I am going to get a bunch of grief for this post, I am sure I have already heard all of the jokes about it, but oh well, I loved that plane and it will always have a special place in my logbook.

So if you have a Shorts story, lets hear it!!

SD

 

[fly2002]

SD3-30 DRIVER

I am currently a first officer on a shorts 330. And I LOVE that plane. When I went into training i thought i would probably end up on the 360...which i thought was much cooler looking....but i have trully grown to love the 330. The plane while ugly..performs it's job better than any other plane in the same catagory in my opinion. The metro can't carry as much. And when i look at kingair's now I laugh..... It is a great plane to fly for someone just getting into "large airplane" flying. The view is pretty fantastic up front and we don't have a cockpit....no...it's a friggin flight DECK! There's a difference! Big chairs with armrest and instruments you can barely even touch if you leaned forward. The airplane is EXTREMELY forgiving.... I once told my father..."dad...you'll never believe the size of the cessna 172 I flew today!" That one always made me laugh. But i've got a 1000 hours now and it's my first turboprop...in fact i've only got about 15 more minutes till I have to go preflight. DHL FLT 231 RDU-CLT
330 driver

 

[72Longhorn]

No balls in your Shorts

fly2002,

You don't deserve to put a post on here about the Shorts unless you pay me 15K. Just like you did for your job at ACC.

PFT pukes like you make me sick!

Unfortunately, ACC is getting rid of their non-PFT F/O's to make room for more Pukes like you. How can you sleep at night knowing you just caused someone to loose their job because you bought their position.

72

 

[Typhoon1244]

There are still some old Shorts drivers here at ASA. One of them has a sticker on his flight bag that says:

"Anybody can fly a round airplane..."

 

[KingAirer]

Re: SD3-30 DRIVER

And when i look at kingair's now I laugh.....

And how about when your pluggin through the storms at 7000?

Come on man, lets not go that route.

 

[SDdriver]

For the above post, I do love the King Air, very good airplane, always enjoyed flying it, but I have to say pluging through those storms at 7000 or 9000 taught me how to become one hell of a weather flyer. You really have no choice when you can't get over them. I'll tell ya I wouldn't trade that low level weather flying for anything. Was some scarey, but WONDERFUL experience and really helps you become a really good pilot and develop good skills for later in your career when you get caught in that situation. I think everyone should at least do a few months of below 10,000 night cargo flying, just for the experience. It is invalueble if you ask me. I am glad that I did it and happy I could do it in the Shorts. That good old plane is like a tank, it will take you through just about anything you can handle.

BUt hey, I do love the King Air also. Great plane. Both are really good entry level turbines. Anyone would be lucky to be introduced to turbine flying in either one.

SD

P.S. I liked the post about the sticker, Anyone can fly a round airplane. Funny how true that is in a sense. To fly the shorts in any amount of crosswind is a chore. It is like a barn door out there in the wind, Whew I have had some interesting times when trying to come in when the crosswind is 15 to 20kts. I have to say, your heart rate will be seriously elevated on those landings.

Fly safe guys..can't wait to hear from some of you shorts drivers or X shorts drivers. I know you have some good stories, lets hear em..

SD

 

[banned username 2]

Re: No balls in your Shorts

fly2002,

You don't deserve to put a post on here about the Shorts unless you pay me 15K. Just like you did for your job at ACC.

PFT pukes like you make me sick!

Unfortunately, ACC is getting rid of their non-PFT F/O's to make room for more Pukes like you. How can you sleep at night knowing you just caused someone to loose their job because you bought their position.

72

Hey Longhorn,

Looking at your profile you seem to have some "big" airplane ratings at very low time... Did you pay for those? A 737 Type and an FE Rating at 1,500 hours?

 

[KingAirer]

SD,
My post was not a Kingair SD3-30 Debate. Im saying this guy is coming across a little cocky, and feel free all you want to look across the ramp and laugh.

As for the shorts,
I spent some time fueling them when they were still in the USAir express system. Those guages were crap unless you beat the heck out of them. I remember getting a "top it off" order from the captain only to find out the auto shut off didnt work and i got a big jet a bath.

 

[A Squared]

Falcon capt,

got a chuckle out of your Avtar, it's been 13 years since I was in a Porcao (can't make the little squiggle over the o) I heard recently they have one in the US someplace, can't recall where.

 

[SDdriver]

KingAir,

I know what you meant, he did come across a little cocky, but hey you know the saying.

I never look at the King Air and laugh, I love that plane. Very sharp airplane. I loved flying the 200

You are right about the fuel guages, you have to beat on them, and YES you don't watch it and a top off takes on a new meaning. I have seen it 2 or 3 times in my days of flying the shorts. I use to always tell the fuelers, when it gets almost full, slow down and ease the rest in, and watch out above, cause you screw up and you are getting bathed in Jet A..

For some reason they never listened, but I can tell you one thing, they LEARNED. haha..the hard way.

SD

 

[LearLove]

"Any cool and interesting stories that you might have while flying the Shorts?"

Just seek out some old Allegheny or Piedmont guys.... CCair too.

I've flown with Allentown capts. who had 10000+ hours in the 330/360. Some very interesting stories. Like the 330 that fliped in the thunderstorm at ABE. The Capt at the time is our current senority number 1 with a DOH of around 1968, back in the early 80's (I think) they were boarding up at the old ABE terminal (where the old tower/FAA building is, now a rental car parking lot) when a strong storm came in an flipped the 330 on its back. I'm not positive but I don't think anyone was hurt. Anyway Sorts came in and took the fuselage and as the story goes they made it into the first 360. Which according to another ABE capt. is N360SA which is usually seen at AVP doing the AVP-MDT-AVP run for Air Cargo Carriers.

There are also Shorts sitting in the Reading junkyard, the old home of Suburban Airlines. Apparently Suburban was the US lead MX and dealer for the Shorts.

How about the story when 2 Suburban pilots decided to take off from RDG in formation with the Shorts. The President of the Airline was in the restraunt which looked out onto RYW 31 or 36 adn saw them. They are both employed here to this day.

A mechanic jumped from the back somewhere between LNS and RDG commiting sucide in one of our 330's after he'd been fired.

Many stories about loosing 5 pounds a day in the summer, guys would get in the cockpit then take off their pants and fly in boxers it got so hot.

The Snake Story. A RDG flight attendent had a pet snake and one of the Capts. took the sheaded skin and put it behind a panel. Well when the aircraft went in for MX they found it and got scared the it was living in the fuselage so they tore the aircraft apart trying to find the snake. As the story goes they figured out who it was and he got an extra week vacation. And we he's still employed here today.

Many Many stories I've picked up from these guys about the "$hitbox" as they call it. The flight attendents have great stories about the airplane too.

 

[SDdriver]

Thanks for the stories, BTW I have flown that 360 SA...Good airplane, one of the better ones..I really do like the 360 better, it is a little harder to slow down, but most people would laugh at that since we don't fly that fast anyway, but when they say do 180 to the marker, then you try to get that thing dirty, it is a little challenging, but a whole lot of fun!

SD

 

[LR25]

Used to follow one into Panama City every morning while flying a Beech 18.

It just depended on who got the better vector that determined who landed first.

The clearance from ground after clearing the runway was "follow the winnabago to the ramp".

Imsure it looked wild from bystanders in the FBO, a square airplane followed by my antique puffing smoke, not much though.

 

[griffith30@mchs]

Best Shorts story I know: I was at ORD years ago and tower launches a Shorts off of 4L followed by another Shorts next in line.First Shorts gets a left turn off of runway heading,the next guy gets a right turn .The next guy to depart is told,'--- fly runway heading,split the pair of Shorts,cleared for takeoff!'.There was a brief period of silence and then tower says,'I've wanted to do that for a long time!'

 

[nimtz]

I've flown with Allentown capts. who had 10000+ hours in the 330/360. Some very interesting stories. Like the 330 that fliped in the thunderstorm at ABE. The Capt at the time is our current senority number 1 with a DOH of around 1968, back in the early 80's (I think) they were boarding up at the old ABE terminal (where the old tower/FAA building is, now a rental car parking lot) when a strong storm came in an flipped the 330 on its back. I'm not positive but I don't think anyone was hurt. Anyway Sorts came in and took the fuselage and as the story goes they made it into the first 360. Which according to another ABE capt. is N360SA which is usually seen at AVP doing the AVP-MDT-AVP run for Air Cargo Carriers.

You know it's always great to hear stories about a hull you flew being flipped onto its back, but only after you're done flying it. I did that run for 3 months in that very bird. What a joy, a 12 hour duty day while helping load/unload 7500 lbs of freight 4X for at best 2 hours of flying! The things we do to build time right! But she is a good ship and never let me hurt her eventhough I was wet behind the ears.

I remember one high density day at AVP we took off full and were climbing at best 600 fpm. ATC was so scared sh*tless because he didn't think we could clear those high towers south of AVP. It was VFR and I could see them, so it wasn't a big deal. Right as we switched to center the ATC guy asked if we had switched to a piston that day and forgotten to refile. He just couldn't believe that slowly moving/climbing dot was a turboprop!

I got First Turbine Syndrome for the old Shed just like alot of guys get for the Beech. We that flew it are definetly a very different breed. Everyone else will refer to it as 'the ugliest f*cking piece of sh*t I've ever seen.' But for those of us who are privileged enough to have that time in our logbook, we will just simply smile and laugh to ourselves. Only we understand just how much of joy that piece of Northern Irish engineering was to fly! Only we understand how cool it is to get to fly your approaches Red Line to the marker. Not that I mind the glass I now fly, but I definetly get very sentimental when I go through MKE or BTV and get to see the shed up close again.

If anybody nows where I can get some flight bag stickers with the Shed on it, I'd be willing to pay good bucks. I'm especially looking for the old Eagle stickers which have the cartoon shorts on it. By the way how's life at ACC these days?

 

[njcapt]

I've flown with Allentown capts. who had 10000+ hours in the 330/360. Some very interesting stories. Like the 330 that fliped in the thunderstorm at ABE. The Capt at the time is our current senority number 1 with a DOH of around 1968, back in the early 80's (I think) they were boarding up at the old ABE terminal (where the old tower/FAA building is, now a rental car parking lot) when a strong storm came in an flipped the 330 on its back. I'm not positive but I don't think anyone was hurt. Anyway Sorts came in and took the fuselage and as the story goes they made it into the first 360.

I heard Fred just looked over at his FO, hanging upside down with him in the voluminous cockpit, and told him not to un-do his seatbelt or he'd probably kill himself in the fall.

How about the story when 2 Suburban pilots decided to take off from RDG in formation with the Shorts. The President of the Airline was in the restraunt which looked out onto RYW 31 or 36 adn saw them. They are both employed here to this day.

I'd pay a thousand bucks to have a decent picture of those two taking off in formation with the sun rising behind them. Weird thing is, those two Captains are the most laid back, quiet guys you'd ever meet. I'm glad ALPA (or UPA) got them their jobs back. They were great to fly with.

The Snake Story. A RDG flight attendent had a pet snake and one of the Capts. took the sheaded skin and put it behind a panel. Well when the aircraft went in for MX they found it and got scared the it was living in the fuselage so they tore the aircraft apart trying to find the snake. As the story goes they figured out who it was and he got an extra week vacation. And we he's still employed here today.

Probably my all-time favorite airline story. You have to know Rick - he's an inventive, somewhat twisted guy. The Shorts cockpit was covered with these lame-70's-patterned honeycomb panels that (poorly) covered the structure. Each one was about 12 - 18 inches square, and there were probably fifteen or twenty of them. Rick took the skin (I know the snake was at least six or seven feet long when I was flying there) and wound it through the side walls of the aircraft throughout the cockpit. I don't think he wrote anything up, but told the mechanics that they heard a hissing noise while on the ground. They took off the first panel and nearly sh!t themselves. They slowly took the rest of the panels off armed with a handgun (author's embellishment). MX gutted that freakin' shed looking for the inevitable reptile. Rick got a week off for that one. Easy for me to say, but the week off was worth the story - which lasts a lifetime.

The sh!tbox was my first airline aircraft, what a let - down. I remember my first day of IOE climbing out of PHL in 4498Y - an old -R model 360. Laboring through the thermals of mid June, we had a climb rate between +600 and -200 fpm the whole way to 6000 ft. This, while sweat is running down my face and soaking all the way through MY PANTS! The -R's didn't have freon air conditioning, so the only way to cool off was for the Captain to open his huge storm window and draw all the BO and fart laden air from the cabin out through the window. After a few minutes we would start getting relatively refreshing 80 degree air. This feature also gave Matt Swanson the opportunity to chain smoke throughout the flight. I remember Captains writing up the sheds with non functioning freon a/c when the cockpit temperature stayed above 105 degrees during cruise. Made me question my career choice.

Another feature of the Shorts was its permeability. Pilots who fly pressurized aircraft can't truly appreciate this phenomenon. There is a humongous ditching hatch over the FO's head which, in theory, would have allowed some of our well - fed Captains to get their fat azzes out in an emergency. If you looked at the hatch from the outside, it looked like some perv had geezed KY Jelly all around it. This was the ineffective sealer MX used to try and seal the thing. On overnights rain would fill the crack around the hatch. It wouldn't leak until rotation, at which point a gallon or so of stagnant, KY laden water would empty itself into the FO's lap and face. It was not uncommon to see Shorts FO's smartly attired in black plastic garbage bags to fend off the onslaught of rainwater. This feature was not unknown to Shorts brothers, since the freakin' 330 had (no sh!t) gutters hanging under the overhead panel. I don't know why they would have taken them out of the 360 except maybe because of embarassment.

Got 2500 hours in that beast flying out of MDT and RDG before being rewarded with the position of 'furloughed'. It was like being dumped by the ugliest chick in school. 17 months later I got recalled into the Dash, which rescued me from a fate worse than the shed - American Eagle.

P.S. Hey, buddy. Just for you I added the shed to my list of aircraft flown. It shows that I've served in the trenches with my comrades.

 

[AA717driver]

Load in my shorts...

I've got my SD3 type as a back up when my major airline career takes a dump!

I flew for StatesWest in '87. It takes a real man to fly over the desert in the summer below 10,000'. We used to call it the 'shake and bake'. I did come to the realization that I'd rather be in a "widebody" that was ugly than a B-1900 all cramped up.

We had freon A/C so we were cool up front and had hotties in the back! (StatesWest had some great F/A's...PHX girls, you know ).

After the SD I moved to the Fk-27 at ARW--that airplane sucked. I still rank it as one of the best airplanes I've worked in.TC

P.S.--Unless you can go to really high, I'd rather go low(MVA) to work around TRW's.

 

[72Longhorn]

My low time

Falcon Capt,

I sure as heck DID NOT pay for any ratings that I currently hold. My F/E rating was payed for by an FAR 121 cargo company that is now bankrupt. I flew F/E for them for about 9 months. The B-737 type rating was payed by Uncle Sam through the WIA after being furloughed from the above mentioned company. Iwas fortunate enough to get a lot of quality flight experience in turbine aircraft because of the hiring boom of late 1990's. Airlines back then were hiring pilots right out of flight school without having to PFT.

72Longhorn

 

[fly2002]

Hey

Hey guys...didn't mean to come across as cocky there. My apologies to all for that. I just think it's nice to fly a unique airplane. ....hence the whole "shorts stories". I think a lot of people are proud they've flown "the shed". My apologies to kingairer and SDdriver especially. ....didn't mean to hijack the thread. Longhorn...were you raised by wolves? Your one of the most hateful people I have ever met online. Your shots at me are entirely uncalled for. Especially after I took the time to private messege you to seek your advise. Boy was I mislead...to believe you had any intelligence whatsoever. You killed yourself in your last post. "I was lucky" you say to be so fortunate to live through the booming late 90's. And your 737 type...?...if i'm not mistaken Uncle Sam=me and SDdriver and everyone else on this board who flipped the cash to get you that type. Wow...your so proud....did you enjoy uncle sam's free handout? The rest of us work.

 

[citdrver]

Longhorn,

You have 1500 hours and a 737 Type?

Dude, If you had to get a free type why did you choose that one? Ya got 1500 hours, and I imagine a bunch of that is FE time......oh yea and you have no job. Dude, you have no place to bash these guys, they may buy thier time or type or whatever, but in this industry everything comes around. Not now, but later it always does. They may have bought thier training, but they may be out of a job soon, so as I said it all comes around. They make thier choices..good or bad, and you obviously made yours.

Toodles!