hobby wrote:Thanks everyone.
For Motormouse:
Also intersesting in the photo of the USAF Sherpa were what appeared to be tail props locked beneath the rear fuselage to stabilise the acft while being loaded on the ground. I had not seen that before. Were such stabilisers used with civilian 330s which did not have thre ramp?
Once again, many thanks for the gen.
Bear with me on this, I'm going to explain it in reverse order....
On the 360's there was a tail 'pogo stick' as it was called, that plugged into the underside of fuselage during loading/off loading (even for passenger services) for that very reason.
Piccy of 360 tail with 'pogo stick' fitted
The 330's (rear baggage door, no ramp version) did not need one for normal passenger service, however for freight use when there may be one or more hairy loaders,plus a cabin loaded from rear to front (freight door is fwd left side) then it was quickly found that some stabilisation was necessary.
Now,.. the rear baggage door had an in built ladder (for baggage handlers and anyone else to use to climb up into the compartment), so a cunning plan was adopted whereby an adapter fitting was slotted into the inbuilt ladder, to enable the 'pogo stick' from the 360 to be used. Which is why on most pictures of a 330 being loaded with freight you'll see the rear baggage door is opened....although fitting of the 'pogo stick' became a bit hit and miss, some crews would just open the baggage door and leave it at that!
Piccy of 330 tail,rear baggage door open
Digressing a bit, it was not unheard of for a 360 to get airborne with the 'pogo stick' still fitted, although it
was designed to fall off as the aircraft 'rotated' on-take off :shock:
Hope this helps
ttfn
Pete
Ps; in that ramp picture, the all-white 360 is G-BLPV, which is one that I looked after at that time,and was operated by Jon's (360Shed) company.
It later went to USA for Sherpa conversion I think.
Aviation is a small world innit!
pps..on the conversion process
In 1993, West Virginia Air Center won a contract to reconfigure Shorts 360 airframes into the C-23B Sherpa version for a U.S. military program. Short Brothers, the Ireland-based airframe manufacturer and creator of the Model 360, bought West Virginia Air Center in 1994, when it came up for sale. Bombardier, which had purchased Short Brothers in 1989, started bringing commercial work to the facility as the Sherpa program wound down. The first commercial job (under Bombardier ownership) entered the hangar in 1997, and the last Sherpa left the Air Center a year later in September 1998