I used to watch those guys take off out of Luanda, Angola. Gave me chills.

Are those things overloaded, under powered, or just not real good designs overall.

Consider all of the above before giving an A PLUS.

We had a Galaxy at the local air show years ago before the runway was extended at MFR and they had to wait until the air cooled at dusk to safely leave. Now, with more tarmac, we have Antonovs coming and going carrying Erickson AirCranes ...
That Rooskie was just about in the weeds before he pulled up!

The Russians are notorious for flying heavy.

Yea, the Russians just look at things different, I would be crapping my pants if I was sitting right seat in that airplane. I would bet they were smoking too!!

Probably had vodka shots all around before reading the line-up check list...

(Hope you don't think I'm kidding.)

Maybe it was designed by the guys who designed that aircraft that just skims over the surface of the water ??

We used to load the 747 up with cut flowers in Bogota every night. We would have to wait until the temp dropped so we could take off. We were always right on the edge.

Several times I advised the Colombians not to fudge the weights, because if they did, and we had lost an engine just prior to V1, we would have taken out a big patch of Bogota. I have never made a comfortable takeoff out of Bogota. Legal, but very uncomfortable.

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
We used to load the 747 up with cut flowers in Bogota every night. We would have to wait until the temp dropped so we could take off. We were always right on the edge.

Several times I advised the Colombians not to fudge the weights, because if they did, and we had lost an engine just prior to V1, we would have taken out a big patch of Bogota. I have never made a comfortable takeoff out of Bogota. Legal, but very uncomfortable.

Brings to mind the old saw about the most usless things to an aviator:
- Altitude above you.

- Runway behind you.

- Fuel in the truck.

- The airspeed you ain't got.

As I heard it:

Things of no use to a pilot:

Sky above you
runway behind you
gas in the truck

Duck,

Don't forget the sleep you didn't get

There's that, and plenty of it!

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
We used to load the 747 up with cut flowers in Bogota every night. We would have to wait until the temp dropped so we could take off. We were always right on the edge.

Several times I advised the Colombians not to fudge the weights, because if they did, and we had lost an engine just prior to V1, we would have taken out a big patch of Bogota. I have never made a comfortable takeoff out of Bogota. Legal, but very uncomfortable.

My dad was left seat in the 60's in the early and underpowered 707... used to fly the non-stop New York to Las Vegas and return. He said they always used every inch of runway coming out of Las Vegas with full fuel, passengers and Las Vegas heat... first time he did it was a pucker for sure he said, but the Boeing Engineers had takeoff figured to the inch of runway.

One day he ran into someone from the tower who said they held their breath every time that particular flight took off!

He also mentioned flying the fully loaded 747 out of Athens in the summertime wasn't especially fun!

I sorta envy the guys flying the new high thrust engines. I don't think I'd like to get an
ATP in computer programming, but having all that excess thrust is a luxury I never became accustomed to.

Brad,
Was your dad TWA? Worked flight control for them when the water jobs (water injection)came in and out. At 130 degrees, it was a sight to behold!

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
I sorta envy the guys flying the new high thrust engines. I don't think I'd like to get an
ATP in computer programming, but having all that excess thrust is a luxury I never became accustomed to.

I remember once taking off in a 61 series DC-8 out of PANC on the way to Naha Okinawa. it always interesting rotating in the last 2000' of a 12,000'runway.

We had to get vectors down the sound before we could turn Northwest over the Ak range the old girl simply was maxed out and doing the best she could at about 600 FPM up until we were able to get 300 KIAS over the wing. Those old short wing 8's were like that.

A 777 or 767 or 757 is an entirely different animal. I'll tell you what though a loaded 777-200 with the PW4090's on it is no fighter jet at max gross but it's got wing, lots and lots of wing. Just like your old 747's it is sucking major wind to get those last couple of thousand feet to TOC when heavy.

quote:

Originally posted by eveready47:
Brad,
Was your dad TWA? Worked flight control for them when the water jobs (water injection)came in and out. At 130 degrees, it was a sight to behold!

Yes, TWA. Good catch!

quote:

Just like your old 747's it is sucking major wind to get those last couple of thousand feet to TOC when heavy.

Yeah, we used to do MIA/Campinas a lot and also Cuidad del Este, Paraguay packed to the gills. We could just squeak out 280 for the first hour or two, particularly in the summer. Coming back was different. though, because usually all we'd haul out of Campinas was a few tons of cast iron engine blocks and empty out of CDE. Reduced thrust take offs and gettin way up there. I always love to go as high as I could.