OzarkD9S From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 4680 posts, RR: 23 Reply 1, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 8561 times:
Congratulations.
I would love to know what her stats are (no, not her physical ones) re: how many times has she taken off from HNL or OGG etc...
Aloha73G From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2301 posts, RR: 5 Reply 2, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 8503 times:
Considering that she did only interisland flights for over 40 years, she easily has in excess of over 40,000 "cycles"
6 flights/day x 16 days/month x 12 months/year x 40 years = 46,080
It is very conceiveable that she is well over 50,000 because most interisland work days are more than 6 flights and in the past they often did 10 or more flights each work day.
-Aloha!
Aloha Airlines - The Spirit Moves Us. Gone but NEVER Forgotten. Aloha, A Hui Hou!
JetBlueGuy2006 From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 1613 posts, RR: 2 Reply 3, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 21 hours ago) and read 8348 times:
Did she start working Island-Mainland for a while?
It looks from the pictures that she was part of a charter for the Hawaii Football team.
Congrats to her on a great career and a long, happy retirement.
Wonder what some of the other airlines have in terms of the most senior F/A and how long they were or are with the company
Home Airport: Capital Region International Airport (KLAN)
Orion737 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 20 hours ago) and read 8273 times:
If CB Lansing hadnt been lost in 1988 would she have beaten this record. I know she was amonghst the longest serving flight attendants at Aloha. I think of that lady quite often and the needless loss of her life.
Aloha73G From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2301 posts, RR: 5 Reply 6, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 20 hours ago) and read 8206 times:
Quoting JetBlueGuy2006 (Reply 3): Did she start working Island-Mainland for a while?
Yes, since Aloha started mainland service in 1999 she has been working those flights.
Quoting Panpan (Reply 4): Do you have any details on that??
Here's a quote from "Wings of Paradise: Hawai'i's Incomparable Airlines" by Peter N. Forman
In February 1957 TPA (Trans-Pacific Airlines; later Aloha Airlines) was still flying Vistaliners (DC-3s with holes in the windows for clearer pictures). One day a newly hired flight attendant by the name of Patti Apoliona (Patti Smart in later years) worked a charter flight from Kona to Lihue. During the beverage service a passenger banged into Patti's tray, drenching her skirt with pineapple juice. She retreated to the cockpit seeking advice from Captain Irving Wong.
"Do you have a change of clothes with you he asked?"
Fortunately Patti did, so she headed to the lavatory and changed into the only garment she had, multi colored Capri shorts. Then she washed out the pineapple juice in the sink and returned to the cockpit. The copilot, being a helpful sort, volunteered to dry the skirt, so he cracked his window a couple inches and held the skirt beside the opening.
"It's not drying fast enough!" called Patti. She was 18 years old, out of uniform, still a probationary employee and feared losing her job. The copilot opened the window all the way and Poof! the skirt shot out and vanished.
Passengers already knew that something was amiss, but when Patti's uniform skirt streaked past those picture windows on the right side of the plane all doubt disappeared.
Captain Wong suggested they make a radio call to Honolulu and request that Patti's mother be telephoned so so she could bring a more appropriate skirt to Honolulu Airport, their next stop after Kauai. Patti agreed, although she knew her mother didn't approve of her flying, and losing her skirt at 6,000 feet over the Pacific wasn't going to help matters. After Irving completed the call, the familiar voice of another Aloha pilot came back over the company frequency.
"Patti, this is Harry Saunders. We're a few minutes behind your flight and we saw your skirt floating through the air. We snagged it on our wingtip."
With this call Patti regained some hope that her career might somehow be salvaged, and she grabbed the microphone from the captain and responded, "Harry, you land that airplane extra smoothly. I know you can do it!"
Patti's plane reached Lihue first and once on the ground she learned that passengers had passed the hat and collected enough money to buy her a new skirt. Harry's DC-3 landed and parked right behind them, but with no skirt on the wingtip. Captain Saunders had shared with everyone aboard his flight the hoax he was conducting, liberally salting the tale with exaggerations. Instead of heading for the terminal his passengers made a beeline for Patti's plane, determined to discover if there really was a naked stewardess on board.
Other airlines shared that company frequency and several pilots overheard the sequence of events. The story of the TPA stewardess who lost her skirt out the window of a DC-3 traveled along the airways at about 300 miles per hour. No doubt the story circumnavigated the globe as it took on inevitable embellishments. To this day Patti runs into airline people from other countries who know this story and is often amazed by the colorful enhancements.
A couple days after the flight Patti received a call at home.
"Patti, this is Ruddy Tong (the President of TPA)." She figured this was it, she was going to be fired. Ruddy wanted to know all the details. He had no intentions of firing her, though, he just wanted to tell the story properly at the Rotary Club that morning.
Aloha!
Aloha Airlines - The Spirit Moves Us. Gone but NEVER Forgotten. Aloha, A Hui Hou!
Transpac787 From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 3139 posts, RR: 14 Reply 8, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 7468 times:
Quoting JetBlueGuy2006 (Reply 3): Wonder what some of the other airlines have in terms of the most senior F/A and how long they were or are with the company
Jetjack74 could probably tell you for certain, but I think the current #1 FA at NWA has a DOH of 1951.
HAL From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 2466 posts, RR: 53 Reply 9, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 9 hours ago) and read 7028 times:
The #1 FA at Hawaiian has a hire date of June, 1957. And yes, she had a 50th anniversary celebration here earlier this year. In comparison, our most senior pilot was hired in April, 1970.
HAL
[Edited 2007-11-26 00:03:50]
One smooth landing is skill. Two in a row is luck. Three in a row and someone is lying.
NWA757boy From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 662 posts, RR: 5 Reply 10, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 8 hours ago) and read 6836 times:
Quoting JetBlueGuy2006 (Reply 3): Wonder what some of the other airlines have in terms of the most senior F/A and how long they were or are with the company
Well at Northwest, the "queen" is Bob Reardon, hired in 1951 and still going to Asia!
There are 6 FAs hired in the 50s at NW.
Type-Rated From United States of America, joined Sep 1999, 4345 posts, RR: 20 Reply 11, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 8 hours ago) and read 6755 times:
Awhile back I had the opportunity to host a luncheon for a group of retired F/A's. The oldest was a gal who started with TWA in 1936. They were a fun group, sharing stories from the "good old days". But even though these gals were all older than the hills, they still had the grace and poise that you would expect from a flight attendant of that era. No slouching here, every one of them had perfect posture.
Fly North Central Airlines..The route of the Northliners!
PlanenutzTB From United States of America, joined Sep 2005, 256 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 7 hours ago) and read 6464 times:
Congratulations and Mahalo for your years of service with my favorite inter-island airline. Aloha!
I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.
Philzh From Switzerland, joined exactly 6 years ago today! , 146 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 7 hours ago) and read 6456 times:
Quoting Aloha73G (Reply 6): "Patti, this is Harry Saunders. We're a few minutes behind your flight and we saw your skirt floating through the air. We snagged it on our wingtip."
Brilliant story indeed -- thanks a lot for sharing it!
JAGflyer From Canada, joined Aug 2004, 3321 posts, RR: 4 Reply 14, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 5456 times:
Great for her, she looks like she really enjoyed her time with the company and served the pax well. Farewell!
I did a report on Aloha's incident with the 732. Never ever, ever buy a used short haul jet from them. They have like 50,000 hours and 200,000 cycles! Think of it as a 4 year old car with 60,000 of city mileage or one with 60,000 highway.
[Edited 2007-11-26 05:18:38]
Supported the beer and soda can industry, recycle old airplanes!
Orion737 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 15, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 5398 times:
I agree those 732 have high utilisation, as one of the longest serving Aloha flight attendants found to her peril when she was sucked out high over the Pacific ocean. Her memory lives on and I hope it still does at Aloha.
LongHauler From Canada, joined Mar 2004, 4275 posts, RR: 36 Reply 16, posted (5 years 5 months 4 weeks 2 hours ago) and read 4644 times:
Quoting Type-Rated (Reply 11): No slouching here, every one of them had perfect posture.
It's funny you should say that. I have noticed that with the "older" Flight Attendants I have the honour of flying with from time to time. They always look "correct", even the way they talk, sit and move about the aircraft. They also command a certain amount of respect from the passengers. Although .... how they end up on the EMJ, when they could be doing TLV or CDG, I'll never know!
I remember a few months ago, when giving the Flight Attendants a briefing before flight, one of them asked me, when looking at my last name, if my father was Arthur. Yes, I said ... she laughed and said she was one of the Stewardesses on his first flight as Vanguard Captain!!!
I then spent the next 10 hours, (it was a YYZ-SEA-YYZ turn) asking her about the "good old days". A very pleasant day.
Never gonna grow up, never gonna slow down .... Barefoot Blue Jean Night
Mjlhou From United States of America, joined Sep 2006, 154 posts, RR: 4 Reply 17, posted (5 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 3305 times:
I think I can safely speak on behalf of the 9K+ FAs at WN when I say CONGRATULATIONS Patti!!! I hope you have years of retirement happiness as you deserve!
MJLHOU
Don't worry about things you can't change or control
Aloha73G From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2301 posts, RR: 5 Reply 18, posted (5 years 5 months 3 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2338 times:
777fan From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 2402 posts, RR: 3 Reply 21, posted (5 years 5 months 3 weeks 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 2018 times:
Quoting Transpac787 (Reply 8): but I think the current #1 FA at NWA has a DOH of 1951.
Wow, when I hear '1951' and 'NW' in the same sentence, I just assume that the DC-9 is the topic of discussion!
Seriously, though, congrats to her - FAs often endure the worst in people and it's clear that despite this, she was nothing but "first class".
Aloha73G From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2301 posts, RR: 5 Reply 22, posted (5 years 5 months 3 weeks 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1945 times:
Quoting Orion737 (Reply 5): If CB Lansing hadnt been lost in 1988 would she have beaten this record. I know she was amonghst the longest serving flight attendants at Aloha. I think of that lady quite often and the needless loss of her life.
Quoting Orion737 (Reply 15): I agree those 732 have high utilisation, as one of the longest serving Aloha flight attendants found to her peril when she was sucked out high over the Pacific ocean. Her memory lives on and I hope it still does at Aloha.
Quoting Orion737 (Reply 20): I think CB Lansing had 37 years in 1988 at the time when she was sucked to her death, would she have reached 50 years sooner than Patti?
You seem to have an odd obsession with CB Lansing.
CB had 37 years in 1988, that means she was hired in 1951. Assuming she was 18 when hired, she would be 76 now. She would have 6 more years of seniority than Patti, who was hired in 1957, though I am sure she probably would have retired before Patti did, but you never know.
Each year on the anniversary of flight 243 (April 28) the Aloha F/A union holds a ceremony at the memorial for CB which is located in the garden which is named for her in the Interisland Terminal at HNL. Many Aloha and Hawaiian F/As participate and her memorial almost always has lei and flowers on it.
-Aloha!
Aloha Airlines - The Spirit Moves Us. Gone but NEVER Forgotten. Aloha, A Hui Hou!
Orion737 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 23, posted (5 years 5 months 3 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 1843 times:
Great to hear. yes the death of CB Lansing deeply affected me, and I didnt know her but she struck me as such a kind, dedicated person and Im glad her loyalty and hard work for Aloha lives on.
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