I flew the B727, B76/75, A300 and finally the MD before retirement. Of all those the MD, by far….was my favorite. Why? Many reasons but to be honest I got very complacent and bored with the other jets. While initially they all were great, they all began to bore me and my inner ADHD was looking for something, ahhh…a little more challenging and the MD seemed to fit the bill. It didn’t look like anything else flying around today and I mean that in a good way. They only built 200 of them so the fraternity of members who had flown it was quite small and that intrigued me too.
My first few days in the sim I knew it was gonna be a challenge and I actually thought I had bitten off more than I could chew. It was becoming a blow to my ego and I was beginning to have serious doubts which I hadn’t had in a really long time. Even though my sim instructor kept saying we were doing just fine and it was a very relaxed training environment, I felt waaay out of my comfort zone. My first IOE trip was a 3am SDF-CGN departure. We get to Cologne and the wind is howling. My IOE instructor, bless his heart…says, “Hey Bill, how about I do this landing and you can take the Dubai leg?” No argument from me…knock yourself out! He wrestled that beast of an machine all the way down final and into the flare and landing. The power changes were so wild all the way down final I actually thought we were going around a few times only to have him quickly reduce power and continue the approach. The arrival was firm but safe. To this day I remember my first thought after landing was “What the h*ll have I gotten myself into…I seriously don’t know if I can do this?”
I really didn’t feel as comfortable in the MD the first 6 months as the other jets. My confidence was on somewhat shaky ground, my ego had been deflated and my attitude went from “I can handle anything thrown at me” to “Don’t “f’ing Nickleback” this landing or it’s gonna turtle on me and were all gonna die!” I guess all the horror stories had gotten to me. Fortunately, I was flying with really senior f/o’s with a lot of MD experience and who were very patient and taught me a lot. This was the first jet I had flown where I had less experience than most of the f/o’s I was flying with and that seemed very weird too.
Right around the 7-8 month point I finally woke up and told myself to snap out of it, it’s just an airplane…fly it like the other planes but just don’t get complacent. That’s when things took a major turn for the better. I quit being a passive spectator and became an active participant. My confidence grew exponentially, the blinders came off and I became much more confident. I learned its quirks and became comfortable just like in the other jets. Never allowed myself to become complacent but comfortable.
Now, to your question about what we liked about the MD…
-Domestic weights (which is most of what I flew) it was woefully overpowered and “Air show 1” departures were a real hoot!
-The system controllers did a great job of taking care of important stuff especially with non normals and emergencies. We’ll thought out!
-Quietest airplane I ever flew with a roomy cockpit. No real need for headsets in the cockpit to have a normal volume conversation and a smooth ride in turbulence (especially coming from the fat wing Airbus).
-Very smooth automation…way ahead if it’s time. B747 folks told me numerous times it was still better than the theirs.
-Normally, V1 cuts and two engine approaches were non events to hand fly and when autopilot coupled they were sleepers. It would autoland on 2 engines.
-Powerful braking. I knew if I could get it on the ground I could have it stopped pretty quick for as big as it was.
-Very heavy roll authority (think DC8) which I hated at first coming off the Boeings and Airbus became something I loved due to its hand flying stability.
-Unique look and beautiful lines and silhouette that always garnered positive comments from other crews more than other jets I flew.
-Never got tired of just looking at it and one of the relative few that got to fly it.
-it’s like they took all the good qualities I liked in the other jets and put them all in the MD.
- Biggest thing I enjoyed was that it required my “A game” all the time which I appreciated because it gave me a great sense of achievement every time I set the parking brake. I NEVER got complacent in the MD as I knew it could rise up and smite thee at a moments notice. If you flew it professionally it made you look good. Have a bad day or get lazy and it would slap you.
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