Saab Swan Song—Final Air Nelson Saab Flight

By Rob Neil.

The 24th of September 2007 was a historic day for New Zealand aviation—particularly for Air Nelson—because it marked the official retirement of the Saab 340 aircraft from the Air Nelson fleet. Pacific Wings was among those invited to join the last officially scheduled Saab service from Wellington to Nelson.

From its beginnings in Motueka in 1976 as Associated Aviation Motueka, operating small piston-engined Piper Aztec, Navajo and Chieftain, and even Cessna 152 and 172 aircraft, Air Nelson (as the company became when Air New Zealand bought 49% of its shares in 1988), has grown into a world-class regional airline with a staff of 485, comprising 176 pilots, 93 flight attendants, 89 engineers, 7 managers and 120 administrative, tarmac and traffic staff, and a fleet that will soon number 23 Dash-8 Q300s.

Air Nelson’s “old hands”—those who have been part of its history from its early days—consider that the safe, reliable, efficient Saab 340 has been largely responsible for “making” Air Nelson into the airline it is today.

Air Nelson has only been operating turboprop aircraft since 1988 when it introduced the first of its Metroliners, so the Saab, with 17 years of Air Nelson service (the first Saabs arrived in 1990), has certainly been a major part of the airline’s history and growth.

Not surprisingly then, there were more than a few sad faces at Air Nelson when the time came to say goodbye to the faithful Saab. However, as good as the Saab has been, Air Nelson has simply outgrown its reliable little workhorse; its 33 seats are no longer adequate for Air Nelson to fulfil its vital role in the growing Air New Zealand domestic network (Air Nelson has been 100% owned by Air New Zealand since 1995).

When the Saab first entered Air Nelson service, the first team of pilots to be trained comprised Bob Guard as Team Leader, Dale Webb (now Flight Operations Manager with Mount Cook Airlines), Mike Ford (now Training and Standards Manager, Air Nelson), Aldis Ameriks (now a senior Q300 training captain with Air Nelson), Lu Gollop (now a senior Q300 training captain with Air Nelson), John Morris (now flying 737s in Hong Kong) and Murray Vincent, who is now a 737 captain with Pacific Blue.

Few outside the aviation industry realise just how massive the task of introducing a new aircraft type into service is. It is not simply a matter of buying new planes and flying them. Training is not as simple as might be imagined; pilots flying existing types cannot simply be withdrawn from revenue service at the drop of a hat. A great deal of planning is required to stagger training to coincide with crew rosters and route schedules so that there is no disruption to passengers and existing services. There are additional expenses involved in ensuring sufficient crews remain qualified on the type to be withdrawn. This can be frustrating for an airline when it costs so much to train pilots on different types, particularly when—as has been the case with a few Saab pilots—they will only have spent around six months flying them before having to be re-trained for the new Q300s.

Before the new Saabs entered service, it was obviously impossible to train new crews in New Zealand and the first training took place with Hazelton Airlines at Cudal in NSW, Australia. The instructor who carried out the Saab ground school and the bulk of the type rating flying training was John Lenaghan from Hazelton, who is now the aircrew training manager for Mount Cook Airlines.

Once the first team were trained, Bob Guard and Dale Webb carried out the bulk of the type-rating training for subsequent pilots in New Zealand, initially at Woodbourne and later at Nelson.

On the 22nd October 1990, Guard and Webb undertook the first flight of a New Zealand registered Saab when they ferried ZK-FXB from Nelson to Blenheim to begin training pilots. The first commercial Saab flight, flown by Bob Guard and F/O John Morris, took place less than three weeks later on 12 November. Coincidentally, exactly six years earlier on 12 November 1984, it had been John Morris who had flown Air Nelson’s forerunner, Associated Aviation’s first scheduled flight between Motueka and Wellington.

The introduction of the Saab represented a big step up for Air Nelson. The new aircraft was its first “real” airliner (the Metro is widely considered to be a large GA type rather than a small airliner). Air Nelson rose to the challenge brilliantly, becoming the fifth-largest Saab operator in the world (with a maximum of 17 Saab aircraft at any one time, although it operated a total of 22 different Saabs) and maintaining an outstanding 99.2% despatch reliability rate during the aircraft’s service with the airline—well above the global average, and a great tribute to the company’s engineering and maintenance procedures.

Five years before the Civil Aviation Rules demanded the introduction of simulators, Bob Guard spearheaded an Air Nelson initiative in putting forward a business case to acquire a Saab 340 full flight simulator for the airline. The simulator was installed in Melbourne and commissioned in April 1997. Before its introduction, Air Nelson was spending more than 900 hours a year on non-productive flying training, which—as anyone who knows anything about the cost of operating such a large aircraft will know—was a hideously expensive proposition. Risk and costs for the simulator were shared with Flight Safety International, Kendell Airlines and Hazelton Airlines. Ansett Australia housed and maintained the simulator, which was recently sold to Aviation Training Australasia, although Air Nelson continued to use it as required and will continue to do so in support of Air Rarotonga, which still owns and operates a single Saab.

Saab’s 340 began life as the Saab-Fairchild SF 340A. The first SF 340A flew in 1983. The type achieved Swedish certification (to both FAR and JAR standards) in May 1984 and FAA certification in June that year. Complete control of the programme passed to Saab-Scania in November 1985, with Fairchild remaining as a subcontractor until 1987, when the “F” was dropped from the designation and the aircraft became simply the Saab 340A. Air Nelson only ever operated the “A” model of the Saab 340 (the 340A was not produced after 1989, when it was replaced by the 340B, which had slightly more powerful engines, better payload/range performance, higher weights and an increased tailplane span).

The Saab 340 has had an extremely good safety record worldwide. There have only been three fatality accidents involving the global fleet of Saab 340s (there were 455 Saab 340s of various models sold) and none of these fatal accidents was in any way caused by aircraft faults. There have only ever been nine hull-loss accidents involving the 340; the only one in which an aircraft fault was a contributing factor was a (non-fatal) incident involving a Shuttle America/United Express 340A when its landing gear collapsed upon landing.

The Saab’s safety record in other parts of the world is particularly impressive in light of the busy and demanding high-cycle environment in which smaller turboprops typically operate—often from less-than-ideal facilities in some of the “less desirable” parts of the world.

Comments by Captain Grant Jones (Air Nelson’s senior training and standards captain) and Bob Guard suggest at least one possible clue to the 340’s good safety record; both men commented on the Saab’s exceptional ergonomics compared to other aircraft they have flown. “It was close to being ergonomically perfect on the flight deck,” said Guard. Such a comment—echoed by other Saab pilots—highlights the importance of good design in mitigating “human factors” in the prevention of accidents.

Jones enjoyed his time on the Saab, but his objective opinions were interesting. While complimenting its advanced (for its time) ergonomics and design, he commented that in high ISA conditions at heavy weights, it could sometimes struggle a little to reach altitude at standard power settings and he noted its dislike for ice—although adding that this dislike was a common one shared by all turboprops. Accordingly, Air Nelson’s training has always focussed on avoiding icing as much as possible and as a result, there have been no major icing problems throughout the type’s New Zealand service.

“People warned me when I came off the Metro,” said Jones, “that I’d soon be bored flying the Saab—but that hasn’t been the case. I’ve never been bored with it. I think it’s a nice blend of automation without losing the ability to hand-fly it. It can be tricky in the landing department; you’ve got to get it right or it will punish you with a very ‘firm’ arrival if things aren’t perfect.

“Having said that,” he countered, “it’s great in a crosswind, because when you put it down, it will stick. It has a high 35-knot crosswind limit, which is a bonus in places like Wellington or New Plymouth.”

Jones also mentioned that flight-deck noise levels in the Saab were significantly higher than in newer aircraft like the ATR and Q300. “In the early days, the noise became very tiring by the end of the day,” he said. “However, once we began using Bose noise cancelling headsets, which had the added bonus of being a lot lighter than what we were used to, it made all the difference and a day’s flying was not nearly as tiring.”

Saab Aerotech sent its own representative, Jan Johansson, to Nelson to join the celebrations marking the end of the 340’s service with Air Nelson, which has earned an internationally recognised “Saab Centre of Excellence” designation. It was therefore not surprising that Johansson spoke highly of Air Nelson—in terms of the quality of both its operational and maintenance procedures when he presented commemorative framed displays to John Hambleton (Air Nelson’s General Manager), Bob Guard, and Rob Burdekin (Manager Technical Division).

General Electric—the company whose engines power the Saab—also sent a representative—Steve Shirley—to mark the occasion and to congratulate Air Nelson for achieving half a million passenger flights in the 340. Shirley quipped that because each Saab carries two of his company’s CT7-5A2 engines, GE preferred to think in terms of a million engine flights!

In its half million passenger flights (or one million GE engine flights) during 17 years, Air Nelson carried over 12 million passengers across its 14-destination route without significant incident. However, in an incident that has no direct relationship to the aircraft itself, Air Nelson has the distinction of being the only airline to ever experience a Saab 340 “hijacking”. In 1997, a man drove his vehicle up to a recently arrived Air Nelson Saab at Nelson airport, and took the two pilots and single flight attendant hostage at knifepoint. The two pilots negotiated the flight attendant’s release with the “hijacker”, who was subdued by the police soon afterwards. Coincidentally, the flight attendant who spent a brief period as the hijacker’s hostage that day was Lisa Palmer—one of the two flight attendants on the Saab’s last officially scheduled flight on the 24th September 2007.

To commemorate the last flight, Palmer dusted off and donned her old Air New Zealand flight attendant’s uniform (from a time when their uniforms actually looked like professional flight attendant’s uniforms rather than Air New Zealand’s current “scruffy, faded-cleaners’-overalls” style). Almost everyone at the commemoration ceremony commented on her extremely smart appearance, which seemed a fittingly appropriate salute of respect to the aircraft in which she has worked for the last 13 years.

Palmer says she always felt very safe flying in the Saab and says she will miss the personal feel of its smaller cabin. However, at the same time, she will not be sorry to move into the larger, more comfortable Q300. “There’s just so much more space in the Q300,” she commented. “Passengers far prefer the space in the Q300 where they’ve got decent-sized overhead lockers for bags and more stand-up headroom. It’s a lot quieter,” she said, echoing Grant Jones’ comments, “and that’s important to passengers.”

Although the 24th of September 2007 did mark the official last revenue flight by Air Nelson’s Saabs, an occasion arose two days later that highlighted Air Nelson and the Air New Zealand group of companies’ proactive approaches to maintenance, operational flexibility and safety. When Eagle Air (one of Air New Zealand’s three “Link” airline feeders) engineers discovered a potential “fault” with Eagle’s Beech 1900 fleet, and the airline initiated a precautionary fleet grounding as a result, the “last-flight” Saab—ZK-NLH—was able to be returned to service at very short (overnight) notice to support Eagle’s services, which would otherwise have been disrupted.

It is undoubtedly this kind of attention to detail and meticulous concern for safety throughout the Air New Zealand fleet that resulted in Air Nelson achieving its world-leading reliability with its Saabs. Despite the difficulties inherent in maintaining suitably current and qualified crews during the biggest fleet conversion in New Zealand domestic aviation history as Air Nelson transitions from Saabs to Dash-8 Q300s, Air Nelson’s systems proved sufficiently flexible to enable a now “redundant” aircraft—its Air New Zealand markings already removed—to almost immediately re-enter service.

As Pacific Wings bids farewell to the Saab and salutes Air Nelson for its safe and successful operation of the type, it is perhaps appropriate that the last words on the Saab should go to Bob Guard: “I feel privileged to have been involved with the Saab from start to finish,” Guard says. “The Saab has been a wonderful aircraft and has allowed Air Nelson to grow to where it is today. I am very proud to have been involved in the introduction of both the aircraft and the simulator, and to have watched Air Nelson mature from a ‘start up’ operator to an internationally recognised ‘Saab Centre of Excellence’.”