My “World” History - Page 13
5/27/2011- The below article and pictures were submitted by Captain Johnny Wiseman.
I was the very first at WOA to check out on this airplane (Boing 747-300). For the next several years I broke several records with it. Needless to say I loved the thing and was in my own littl. World up there in the attic. I came out of Singapore one night with 610 souls on board. Which was not easy because we only had 535 Pax seats. I don’t remember who the poor fellow was that picked the flight up in Taipei, or if he off loaded any of the Boat People I had on board. They were destined for the States. (Johnny Wiseman)
Hi, The 600 plus pax load by the way resulted as the pax were boat people who had been in refugee camps and weighed nothing and their children were ALL lap children. There was no luggage.....I can remember I took a boat flight into Honolulu and it was pathetic to see the cargo hold unloaded. I swear I saw brown paper bags along with small pieces of luggage. I had to get an interpreter to tell them they could not bring food into HNL. (we could see them putting half their meals in their pockets) And we had to promise to feed them again before they left. One of the boat people flights delivered a baby between Guam and HNL I met the flight in HNL and wondered how the General Dec would read more pax's getting off than boarded!! Paper work always..... louella jean
4/12/2010 - The below article and pictures were submitted by Flight Engineer Joe Ciavardone who lives in Lakeland, Florida. Joe was employed as a Flight Engineer with Transocean,Lufthansa and World Airways.
Hi Dick,
Today is the start of our air show, its called Sun n fun, the airport is about 11 miles from my home here in Lakeland, years ago (1986) when I taught Carole my wife and Mike my son how to fly I bought a 1957 PA -22 piper pacer. It won the best custom classic as a result I bought a bunch of aircraft hangars and got involved with the airshow. I met the pilot of the C-54 Tim Chopp, he is president of the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation, and I gave him all my special engine tools for the R2000 engine. I told him Transocean Airlines was my first aviation job, as a mechanic at Bradley Field, Conn. and I worked on some of the DC-4's that flew the airlift in 48 & 49. Bill Keating was my chief pilot at World, and that I had flown with a lot of Transocean pilots both at World and when I flew with Lufthansa.I told him I knew Bill and he was my chief pilot at World. He was so surprised and he had met Bill Keating when he did an airshow out on the west coast. When I was in the air force I was a flight engineer on the Alaskan Air commanders C-54,our boss was a three star general by the name of Frank Armstrong, the movie "Twelve O"Clock High" was his life's story. If you ever get to see the movie again, watch the scene when Gregory peck can't hoist himself aboard the B -17, it shows the name on the side as "Fluffy Fuzz" that was his wife and son's name and we had it painted the side of our plane. So I will be spending the next 4 day out at the airport with him. He fly's airshows all over the country and keeps the memory of the Berlin Airlift alive, He gave me a book you might want to read, its by Ralph Lewis, a former World and Transocean navigator. He retired before I got there but its great reading, It's called By Dead Reckoning, and you can get from the library.
Talked to Andy Henis and he is doing much better, I told him I would sent him some pictures, he doesn't use a computer, and it brought back memories when he flew with Great Lakes airlines. All the best to the best instructor and friend I ever had, and I have had a lot of them, and a hell of a good friend,
I took the pictures this morning and will spend the nest few days with him at the airshow.
(Double click on the pictures below to enlarge)
To My World
Rev.2/20/2024