AIR LINE PILOT submitted by Ed Kaye |
 Far left Thila Gerber, second left Winnie O´Neil (or Linda Gaetz?), says Nancy Neil! Third from left could be Barbel Stemmerman. Third from left is Liz Frischherz (Ng), say Inge & George Castrissiades! Nancy Waibel is second from right say George Flavell and Nancy Waibel Clemons! |
JANUARY 1973 ONA stewardesses Six pretty girls stand prim and cheerful, ready to welcome capacity load of 248 passengers aboard their spic-and-span airplane for trip home to the U.S. (or Linda Gaetz?) (or Liz Frischherz?) |
INSTANT REFLEX AIRLINE
Overseas National Airways operates on short notice any place
on earth to provide its customers fast, safe service.
By Lou Davis
|
The note said: "Come ride with Overseas National Airways. See first hand how the crews work,
what its like to be a part of an instant response air carrier, known officially as supplemental
- signed Ray Blair." It was a nasty evening, Saturday, September 3. Clouds were low and it was raining. Just the kind of weather a pilot does not like, regardless of where he is going or how great the weather will be when he gets there. |
My instructions were to get aboard Overseas National Airways Flight 2940, a stretched DC-8-61,
at Kennedy International Airport. Scheduled departure time was 11 p.m. Destination: Paris.
To see what crew life was like, however, it was suggested that I conform to its time frame: Sleep to 6 p.m. (EDT). Leave the hotel at 7:30 p.m. for the ONA office at 147-39 175th Street, Jamaica, just a stone´s throw from Kennedy´s charter terminal area. The aim was to be just a little earlier than the 9 p.m. time for crew assembly. But the crew members were already there. |
Quite by coincidence, skipper for the flight was
Captain Milton F. Marshall, ONA´s MEC chairman.
First officer was Olen E. Cupp and engineer was Edmond J. Kaye.
Senior stewardess would be Sonya Seibert of Alliance, Ohio.
If preflight shores could ever be routine, these were. R. Dixon Speas´ computerized flight data gave the best altitudes, power settings, headings, etc., that would be ground in the inertial navigation systems used by ONA. There would be 248 revenue passengers, one nonrevenue and three children. Gross weight at takeoff was estimated at 351,000 pounds. Flight time to Paris would be approximately 7 hours. Some low clouds on the other end could result in approach delays. The stewardess crew was exceptionally cheerful considering the Saturday evening, Labor Day weekend departure. The flight attendants were busy checking manifests, cabin supplies and agreeing on duty assignments.  High above the weather at 32,000 feet, Captain Vern Kerns monitors inertial navigation readout for mid-Atlantic checkpoint. |
 Senior stewardess Sonya Seibert asks passengers to place carry-on-luggage under their seats.  Many passengers on this Dulles-bound flight were happy first flyers, already making plans to fly again. |
|
At 10 p.m. Engineer Kaye of East Islip and the flight attendants took the shuttle bus to the
terminal to preflight the airplane. Captain Marshall and First Officer Cupp followed a
few minutes later. The Kennedy charter terminal is truly out in the boondocks. On this rainy, foggy night, the scene resembled airports in the early ´50s: corrugated hangars and tool buildings with nothing more than hut-sized buildings for terminals. Fog blanked the glittering palaces of the scheduled carriers across the field. On entering the DC-8, after a dash up the loading stairs to shield cameras from rain, I was impressed with the view. Since I´m mostly a passenger, it isn´t often that I see an airplane all polished and prim for the first passengers. The pillows, head-rest doilies, safety belts and everything, were arranged in military precision. For an instant it seemed a shame to have the scene ruined by a hoard of passengers. Since the name of the game is revenue, however, that vision was shortlived. ONA had arranged cockpit accessibility for me. I would ride in the passenger cabin during take-off and landing, and be free to visit the cockpit at any other time. Being able to visit with ALPA members in their working environment is a rare treat. Loading was painfully slow since the terminal could only process a few passengers at a time. All of the passengers were French students, returning from holidays in Arizona, Mexico and other southwest points. They carried bulky souvenirs, along with airline flight bags and musical instruments. |
 French students heading home to Paris, board an ONA jetliner at New York´s Kennedy International. Finally, all 248 passengers were aboard and Captain Marshall requested gate clearance at 11:30 p.m. Fifteen minutes later, the big DC-8 was airborne. First stop Paris, then London, and a change of crew. On the climbout, getting 248 student passengers to settle down is quite a problem. The professional and quietly efficient manner of the cabin attendants was really tested. Sonya Seibert and Arnelle Pappas shared PA duties. Arnelle, a former teacher of the French language, ensured that all could understand. While in the soup, not much could be done about stowing carry-on articles. But we were above the weather and in smooth air in 20 minutes. Then came the agonizing job of seeing that all carry-on articles were under the seats. Finally, in desperation, Arnelle came to me and asked that I walk up and down the aisle for her. She would give me the reason later, but would I do it? Sure thing. It was fun not knowing why. |
After my tour, she said: "It worked." "What worked?" I asked. "Why, your walk, of corse."
Then she explained: "I was having so much trouble getting them to stow their packages that
I didn´t know what else I could do. Then I got an idea. Have you walk up and dwn the aisle.
Then I´d tell them you were an inspector. That did it."
Having done my good deed for the day, I visited the flight deck. Everything seemed quite familiar: flight instruments, engine and airplane gauges, knobs and buttons, jump seat, etc. There was one exception: Inertial Navigation System readouts. Having heard about it for years, this was the first opportunity to see it work. Having made many flights over the Atlantic in the weather ship era, frustrated by radio blackouts, etc., this made ocean flying as comforting as section line navigation was in the Midwest before VOR. Marshall said: "Having three units also provides the cross checks and redundancy desired for an airline like ONA, that operates anywhere in the world on short notice." Procedures are such that the average error factor is one mile or less, seldom exceeds five miles after four to six hours of flying. Error identification is swift and simple. One is impressed with the reality that INS-type equipment coupled with automatic data link satellite relay systems, could very well open the door to complete redrafting of overocean route patterns within the next decade. |
Cockpit work load has not decreased at all. Communication and navigation checks keep two
men busy,
with the flight engineer handling INS update data, in addition to normal airplane system
and fuel-monitoring work.
Back in the cabin, three-by-three seating makes for restless passengers after two or three hours. Cabin attendant teams must be expert at weaving around clusters of standees or those headed for the blue room. Everyone has to move by the numbers. Beverage carts and food service traffic ensures that the stewardesses are well trained and adapted to this airborne cafe and its 8,000-foot-high environment. Ingenuity is in demand. On two occasions, I found stewardesses trying to unstick a balky food cabinet with a bottle opener. With the battering these units take from food-handling operators, it´s surprising that they work as well as they do. In my mission of duplicating crew time, fighting off the desire to sleep kept me alternating between the cabin and flight deck. Having met sunshine within a short time out of New York, eating breakfast over England and with the sun near high noon, my system was having its share of conflicts. |
Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Steedman Hinckley
demonstrates supplemental´s innovative spirit with models
of DC-10 that ONA will operate this year and proposed modern-day
Mississippi River steamwheel tour boat planned for nautical buffs.
 DC-8 Flight 4201 as the subject of a close security inspection at Frankfurt Main Airport before its transatlantic flight to Dulles. From 6,000 feet on top of cloud cover, control cleared 2940 to an approach on an ILS localizer to 3,000 fet under the overcast, then a VFR landing on another runway. Seven hours 12 minutes after rotating at Kennedy, our flight touched down at Le Bourget, the famous terminal fo Lindbergh´s 33 1/2 - hour nonstop flight from Roosevelt Field in 1927. With passengers departing for their homes, Flight 2940´s crew was not through. After baggage was unloaded, partial fuel was taken aboard. The next stop called for a one-hour ferry flight to London´s Gatwick Airport. There the crew would complete the log books, clear the airplane and head for a hotel. By the time we reached Gatwick and were enroute to the airport hotel, all had been on job related activities for more than 12 hours. This included nearly two hours of driving or commuting on New York City parkways to reach ONA´s operations office.  Work isn´t over upon landing, however, as outgoing crews are briefed, bar and galley paperwork completed and baggage is gathered for bus trip to hotel. During four days in London, it was my privilege to meet and talk with many airline crews. Some were ONA, others were TWA, Pan Am, BOAC and BEA. All exhibited the same professional attitudes of devotion to duty as the crew of Flight 2940. My return flight was a similar but longer experience due to a ferry flight to Frankfurt, and a nonstop flight from there to Washington´s Dulles International Airport. Designated Flight 4201, the crew consisted of Captain Vern Kerns, Flight Officer Jack Burrow and Engineer William S. Sieg. Senior stewardess was Sharon Eichler. Passengers were U.S. citizens happy to be homeward bound after 10 days or more touring Europe. Some had attended the Olympics at Munich, and were filled with horror stories of the tragedy there. They were also extremely conscious of the need for security inspections at Frankfurt. To most pilots and stewardesses, this account of a flight on ONA may appear to be routine and match their work point-for-point. If it does, then this is the purpose of the story. Too many people within the industry and out tend to think that charter flying is less safe, less professional and less necessary than scheduled flights. With headlines screaming the dilemma of stranded passengers in Europe who have been left flightless by fly-by-night tour organizers, it is understandable that the charter industry suffers - the good operators are tarnished by the bad. In talking with passengers on both flights, it was apparent that the French students felt ONA´s service to be on the same level as most French scheduled carriers. The U.S. passengers were pleased with the efficiency and courtesy of ONA crews and, in some cases, expressed surprise at the modern equipment used. |
 Life for flight attendants on layovers is a succession of frantic struggles with baggage, interspersed with eight hours of duty. Whatever the individual airline pilot or cabin attendant may think about charter airliners, it is evident that the supplemental airline management itself shares very realtistic views of its function in relation to the scheduled carriers. Bill Bailey, president and chief operating officer of ONA, stresses that the charter carrier´s mission is to provide highly flexible, "instant reflex" airlift of the type U. S. scheduled air carriers cannot do. Whether it´s carrying wheat to the starving in Pakistan, medicine to disaster victims, troops or war material to Vietnam or Europe, or tours to Russia, India, Spain, Argentina or Australia, he interprets this work as being a healthy extra muscle to the total air transportation system capability. "We do it with reliability, procedures and standards that match the best of the system but at a price or cost that serves to develop new markets for the scheduled carriers," Bailey says. He indicates that studies conducted by independent sources show that new riders with supplemental carriers invariably become new business for the scheduled airlines. In an overview, it is interesting to note that ONA owns or leases 23 aircraft: six DC-8s, seven DC-9s and 10 Lockheed-Electras. It employs 200 pilots, 70 engineers and 230 cabin attendants. Schedule reliability is high, considering the type of on-call service performed an average of 94 passenger and cargo departures daily. Bailey reports that daily utilization of all aircraft is high. Since the DC-8´s are most susceptible to seasonal load variations, he says that the daily utilization in 1969 was 6.9 hours per day, and that in 1972 it has grown to 12.2 hours per day. Pilot personnel follow the same training and retraining schedules, flight checks and physicals as do scheduled-airline pilots. They must conform to the same FAA standards, ONA has its own flight training department. Aircraft, too, are subject to similar treatment as scheduled aircarrier planes. "We would not want it any other way," Bailey says. "Safety is our byword with comfort, service and reliability following, in that order." He sounds a note of warning to the whole U.S. air-carrier industry: "Europe has accepted the charter carrier as the plowshare of the total system. European airlines are bent on stealing large shares of the American market. If we do not agree to practical roles for the scheduled carriers and the supplementals. we may very well find the issue to be academic-with Europe running off with our markets." Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steedman Hinckley adds: "ONA would be perfectly happy if we didn´t divert one passenger from the scheduled airlines. We´d rather do the spadework for the industry, pipelining new passengers to them. "Unfortunately," Hinckley says, "the scheduled carriers have not had as moderate a view." While the government and the industry wrestle with the internal problems, ONA is planning ahead. It will place two 345-passenger DC-10s in service, the first in April and the second in June. They will be used for nonstop runs between the West Coast and London, as well as in other high-volume markets. Bailey believes ways can be found to integrate supplemental-type service into the total system - as is being done by some airlines in Europe - to make sure that the system benefits from "the best of two worlds." As for the crews, they like their missions. They are well adapted to the instant-reflex requirement, something this passenger cannot claim for himself. |