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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: February 10, 2009, 11:02:15 am » |
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Warren Shrader was a real hard-case character. I remember being at a formal aviation-themed dinner once where he was the guest speaker. He had a real dry form of humour delivered in a dead-pan way very similar to John Clarke (of Fred Dagg fame), and had everybody just about splitting their sides with laughter, even though he kept a completely straight face.
One of the best bits of storytelling I have ever seen from him was a tale he told on a documentary that was made in 1993 to commemorate twenty-five years of Boeing 737 operations in New Zealand. Warren was one of NAC's senior captains when they purchased the first 737s and was one of a handful of senior pilots sent to Seattle to learn how to fly the Boeings, then return to NZ and teach the other pilots who had been selected to operate them. He actually delivered the second Boeing 737 (ZK-NAD) on its direct flight from Boeing Field in Seattle to Wellington non-stop (with lots of rubber fuel-bladders tied down in the cabin). During the first few months of operation in NZ, the 737s were flown by two captains and with a Boeing test pilot sitting in the jump seat to give further instruction. On one of the early scheduled flights from Auckland to Wellington, conditions were extremely rough in Wellington, so Warren and the other captain, both of whom had many years of experience flying DC-3s, Vickers Viscounts and Fokker Friendships in and out of Wellington in extremely wild weather conditions, decided to see for themselves just how good the 737 really was and continue with the approach to Wellington instead of diverting elsewhere. They didn't however tell the Boeing test pilot what they were planning to do. His tale on that documentary of the Boeing test pilot just about crapping his pants, while the two Kiwi pilots did what was virtually routine to them, was an absolute classic piece of storytelling, all delivered in Warren's dead-pan dry style! You often see that documentary bundled with other NZ aviation stuff on DVD in The Warehouse. It is titled: BOEING 737 — 25 Years in Kiwi Service.
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