Been there and done that, but in a much smaller plane ...

[J.O.]

 

[Innuendo]

Friend of mine was departing YYT with a very slippery ramp in a B-727. The pushback tractor removed the towbar and he sat there helpless as a passenger as the aircraft weather vaned into wind with nothing he could do about it.

Had the tractor reconnected and back to the bridge to try later.

The B-727 could be a little light on the nosewheel I guess but discretion was the better option at that point.

Another instance that I  was involved in was in YUL in DC-9 days.

Very slippery ramp after freezing rain. The first gent to try to taxi found that idle thrust was too much for the braking action and before he went off the taxi strip he shut both engines down, ( fortunately APU running, and called for a tow back in).

The rest of us on the gates listening to this  heaved a collective sigh of relief and announced that we were not going, with quiet thanks to the gent who was the lead dog.

[Moon The Loon]

Taxiing into CYYT one night, Hudson General insisted we park our Dash 8 at our normal spot. Heavy snow left maybe a foot of fresh snow on the ramp. The 40+ knot wind was right up our tail. Dumbly (there's no other word for it), I followed their lead. About 50 feet short of where we were supposed to end up, the wind caught our tail. Couldn't have been more than 3 seconds, we were pointed 180.  Taxied out again, called 'em on the radio to clear the ramp of their personnel, went back in and spun the aircraft on OUR time, in the right spot.

25 minute turnaround. That's what we used to do.

[boestar]

I almost went for a tumble off a Bridge at the Old T1 in YYZ.  Was walking down the bridge head to the air craft when it weather vaned away from the bridge.  It was a 727 which was prone to this type of thing on slipery ramps and windy days.