Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
The 777 Cathay Pacific low pass happened about 7 miles from our home. CP owner was on board and canned the pilot. Many, many pictures in local press.
On the 757… that’s the plane Boeing proposed to the Air Heads and they changed the specs mid-bidding process. AirBus won the much disputed bid with a plane closer to the 777 in size. Boeing may sit out the second round of bidding as country club boys want the new plane designed in 4 months.
Boeing machinists are on strike now so everything is “up in the air”. If Boeing completes the design in time, we’re hoping strike will be over. Our son-in-law is a Boeing engineer and their contract is up late fall this year. Who knows what will happen next?
Was kinda scared the lift might slid off’n those wings. Kinda scary. Oh, and I’ve seen Navy 727s doing military departures out of Mayport NS. Was sort of cool, in a trash hauler sort of way.
Byron;
Check your eyes….C-9s have two engines on the tail section, the Navy’s airlines….NALO flies lots of them. Thems’ r McD DC-9s in grey and white.
Boeing 727s are three engined birds.
At one point, the NALO crews knew me and my team by name…and yes, flown them in and out of NAS Mayport a lot.
reminds me of the old saying, something about the difference in knowing you can do something versus knowing whether you should.
You know, in case you’re in a hostile environment and need to move 200-250K lbs of al-you-min-eum on the quick.
Cool airshow stuff (in a perverse sort of way) but just seems like it’s asking for trouble. Not exactly trained/repetively practiced stuff is it?
In particular after the A319 and and B757 takeoffs, all I could think of was, what would the cabin of the aircraft look like after something like that had it been an actual commercial flight?!? I wouldn’t want to clean that up!
xformed: But they have been known to do the military departure, right
And, how did you know I wear glasses? Huh?
I’m with bc– it’s cool to see (especially the Airbus departure), but how safe is it? Are these birds on the edge of contolled flight, or are they well within the aircraft’s performance envelope? Nobody wants to see a repeat of the WA B-52 episode.
Of course there’s also Tex Johnson’s famous barrel roll of the 707 which almost got him fired.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkJDClte-Ts
We know 7Gs will break the spars of an aging P3. What kind of G forces can these large airframes take? After one of these maneuvers, has the airframe been aged a bit more quickly?
Something about 757s operating low and fast that conjures up unpleasant memories…
Yep…sometimes they flew like military guys (within the constraints of the airframe/powerplant). Now I have it from a good source you wear glasses! Heh, I could be Colombo!
Something about 757s operating low and fast that conjures up unpleasant memories…
Good. It wasn’t just me.
Being a Cathay Pacific Pilot is a good gig-especially if you live in Hong Kong. I sure as hell would hate to lose that great job over something like this. I think he probably regrets doing that.
BTW the video has been out there for some time. There is a guy who flies out of Hong Kong (seelai) who puts up all kinds of Cathay Pacific and other aviation videos on the net.
They don’t call it “maximum performance” for nothing.
If it’s not Boeing, I’m not going.
Humble,
Yeah, we did a couple of short-field take offs and landings, plus some low-speed and high-speed fly by’s at Williamsport back in the day. We were at an airshow and the AF guys were some kind of impressed by what our venerable P-3B could do.
It was pretty neat to do a low speed pass and open the bomb bay doors, then hit the power levers and climb out of there. the tower guys were also impressed with the high speed approach. They didn’t think somethink that size with 4 props could run like that
Good old days indeed…
The last three vids were SWEET!
Some days it just doesn’t work so well…
The *normal* departure from SNA (John Wayne Airport) in Orange county CA, is close to #2.
Lock brakes and spool em up at the head of the runway, accelerate on the deck then do a pop-up takeoff to 1000 ft, where they push over to near-level flight and throttle way back to keep from blasting the rich folk in Newport Beach…
The captain always describes the departure, which kind of spoils the fun watching a newbie react when the engines spool down.
Of course, watching the buildings go by during final approach to Lindberg in San Diego has its own pucker factor….
Have to love the crowd going “woooaaahh” as the RNZAF 757 climbs out.
IIRC, the Airbus that flew into the trees had to do with the computer fighting the pilot and trying to land while they did a pass at an airshow. At the end of the clip the shriek of the engines trying to spool up is pretty haunting…
Of course, watching the buildings go by during final approach to Lindberg in San Diego has its own pucker factor….
I like to wave at the people in their downtown offices.
Of course, being down on the street/freeway as the planes come in is rather “interesting,” too…
RickT: Roger that on San Diego. I flew commercial out of there for the first time as a young 2lt on Christmas leave in ’66 and watching the buildings was an eyebrow raiser for me–like something out of a 30′s film–as a matter of fact, until then I thought the only way I’d ever see a major airport operation like that was indeed on film–didn’t think those things existed anymore for safety concerns. And that was back in 66! LOL.
I think there was an aerobatic outfit back in the fifties which did formation aerobatics in C-130s. They were called “The Four Horsemen”, I believe. I would love to have seen the elephants dance in that way.
P.s. I bet coming into Kai Tak was fun, too, judging from the pics i’ve seen.
Go to you tube for some good 747 side slip landing videos at Kai Tek.
DW-
As far as “If it’s not Boeing, I’m not going”
I hope you aren’t holding your breath waiting for the 787 (aka the Paper Airplane)