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Mike Ronan shares this memory with us - I may have been involved in what may have been one of the longest flights on a DC-9. On April 22, 1997 I was asked to ferry a DC-9 from Vancouver (YVR) to Toronto (YYZ). We filled the tanks until fuel was dripping out of the wing-tips! Most of the pre-flight checks and briefings were done prior to starting the APU to preserve all fuel for the flight. Ingrid Tamme was the first officer on this flight, and prior to engine start she called ground control to secure our taxi clearance. Engine start was delayed so there would be no fuel wasted. Our preference for an easterly departure would not be possible unless we were willing to accept a long delay according to the ground controller. So the only departure available would be toward the west on 26L. The controller was advised of our plan to try a non-stop flight to YYZ, and he was very accommodating. He cleared us to the head of the line of airplanes and switched us immediately to tower control. Checks all complete, our engines had their minimum run of 3 minutes and we were rolling down the runway followed by a sporty turn to the left and directly on course. The flight plan was initially filed for Minneapolis (MSP), then changed to Regina (YQG), and then finally cleared direct to YYZ where we landed with 3800 lbs. remaining in the tanks. LRC Mach # was used to maximum advantage with some nice tailwinds along the way. Upon arrival we received a data-link msg from dispatch congratulating us, however one of the old timers over there thought that a similar flight had been done way back in the sixties. I would still like to find out! Normally a DC-9 has somewhat less than 4 hours of "powered flight" in the tanks. This DC-9 flight took 4 hrs, 56 minutes according to my logbook. Mike |
