flyover
New Member
Re: Wichita\'s final 757 to take a bow
Many fine memories of the 8, my first assignment at D. The short 8 was a hot rod. The joke about the stretch was you didn't really fly it you kind of herded it. In turbulence those wings would flap up and down, while the engines went in all directions on their pylons. The tail would wag back and forth so much that from the cockpit the aft jumpseat would dissapear from view as the tail went side to side. Bend but not break.
The 8 was a floater with tiny brakes. So lots of them went off the runway end, especially early on. Reverse thrust on the new engines helps that.
No speedbrakes. Lots of idle thrust and a clean profile meant you could hardly get it down. It is certified to allow reverse thrust in flight on the inboard engines. Did it a few times with the old engines, but not with the new ones, since the thrust reversers were too effective. ie it was supposed to be like hitting a brick wall, not cool for passengers.
Everything was cable operated. DC was short for Douglas Cable Company. That was good from a engineer standpoint. Just grab a handle and move it, no electrons.
Bad thing was no ground air conditioning. So you were dependant on gate or portable air. Then you'd load up and on a hot day hope to get off the ground before cabin hit 90 or higher. Remember some long taxis at DFW in the summer that got ugly.
The starters on the old engines let out a scream when they were engaged. Everybody in ATL knew when an 8 was starting up. Since no APU you were dependent on ground power and air. More than one 8 got left at the gate with an engine running after the crew, in a hurry to make h-hour, forgot to secure the last engine after power was hooked up. That usually meant a visit to the CP office. Of course the engineer was responsible for that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I was lucky enough to fly it as an FO. Many captains would not leave it for the L-1011. When the 8 was finally retired some retired with it. But most made the transition to L-1011. There were a lot of bets going as to which captains wouldn't make it, but I think they all did.
What a machine.
Many fine memories of the 8, my first assignment at D. The short 8 was a hot rod. The joke about the stretch was you didn't really fly it you kind of herded it. In turbulence those wings would flap up and down, while the engines went in all directions on their pylons. The tail would wag back and forth so much that from the cockpit the aft jumpseat would dissapear from view as the tail went side to side. Bend but not break.
The 8 was a floater with tiny brakes. So lots of them went off the runway end, especially early on. Reverse thrust on the new engines helps that.
No speedbrakes. Lots of idle thrust and a clean profile meant you could hardly get it down. It is certified to allow reverse thrust in flight on the inboard engines. Did it a few times with the old engines, but not with the new ones, since the thrust reversers were too effective. ie it was supposed to be like hitting a brick wall, not cool for passengers.
Everything was cable operated. DC was short for Douglas Cable Company. That was good from a engineer standpoint. Just grab a handle and move it, no electrons.
Bad thing was no ground air conditioning. So you were dependant on gate or portable air. Then you'd load up and on a hot day hope to get off the ground before cabin hit 90 or higher. Remember some long taxis at DFW in the summer that got ugly.
The starters on the old engines let out a scream when they were engaged. Everybody in ATL knew when an 8 was starting up. Since no APU you were dependent on ground power and air. More than one 8 got left at the gate with an engine running after the crew, in a hurry to make h-hour, forgot to secure the last engine after power was hooked up. That usually meant a visit to the CP office. Of course the engineer was responsible for that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I was lucky enough to fly it as an FO. Many captains would not leave it for the L-1011. When the 8 was finally retired some retired with it. But most made the transition to L-1011. There were a lot of bets going as to which captains wouldn't make it, but I think they all did.
What a machine.
