<p>MATS and Tunner were great believers in standardization. If everything was standardized, there was little room for mistakes. It started with a standardized training course for replacement pilots at the 'Little Corridor' school at the base at Great Falls, Montana. Every C-54 had a standardized instrument panel. A standard crew was three men: captain, co-pilot and flight engineer. Departure procedures from the main bases, the flight through the corridors, and the approach procedures to Templehof or Gatow had been standardized.
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<p>So were the weather limits: 400-ft (120-m) ceiling and 1-mile (1.6-km) visibility at Templehof, because of the apartments that lined the field; 200 ft (60 m) and 0.5 mile (0.8 km) at Gatow, because of the flatter approaches possible. A missed approach became a departure procedure to an alternate, generally the home base. There were no go-arounds, no second chances. There was no stacking in bad weather, and there were very few missed approaches, even in the worst weather.
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<p>Planes were dispatched on a three-minute headway; the runways at Templehof and Gatow were in use every 90 seconds for alternate takeoffs and landings. In the corridors, the planes maintained constant airspeeds and headings, and were assigned cruise altitudes with a 500-ft (150-m) vertical separation between successive aircraft in each group of three. Typically, the first would be flown at the low cruise altitude of 2,000 ft (610 m); the second C-54, three minutes behind, would be at 2,500 ft (760 m); the third, another three minutes downstream, would be at 3,000 ft (915 m), and the fourth would be back down at 2,000 ft again. All flight speeds were predetermined and controlled from the ground at all times, even during the approach and landing.
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<p>As expected, engines and tires were taking a beating. The design mission of the C-54 had been long-range transport: normal takeoff from a smooth runway, followed by a long flight at cruise power to a distant terminal. Then, after having burned off most of its fuel load, the C-54 would make a relatively lightweight landing. The MATS C-54s took off at a gross weight of about 72,000 lb (33,000 kg), and landed at about 71,000 lb (32,200 kg). In contrast, the approved landing weight for civilian operation of the same airplane was only 63,500 lb (29,000 kg).
