I flew all 3 seats on the 727 at the airlines and we were specifically briefed that procedure was verbotten!

But whats funny is the 787 does exactly that in cruise flight...

Maybe those old school dudes were on to something....'

They weren’t wrong; I don’t think there was debate about the effectiveness of the trick, just that the system was not designed for it, and failure to do it right could lead to adverse performance.

They weren’t wrong; I don’t think there was debate about the effectiveness of the trick, just that the system was not designed for it, and failure to do it right could lead to adverse performance.

Bill, Was the cockpit set up like a T-Bone? Three across?

Just Kidding Bill Probably Flight Engineer?

I only flew the B727 privately, no commercial ops. It was not a common procedure and I never participated but known to many as an option in our peer groups.

Here's our 800NG HUD climbing out of Espirito Santo this afternoon (yes where Boyington's Blacksheep were based in their Corsairs).

The FO is flying and he's deliberately ignoring the guidance cue (solid O below the Flight Path Vector (the circle with wings) because its telling him to lower the nose and we are already doing 320KIAS which is our target Spd displayed above the speed tape. Actually he doesn't have a HUD to ignore - he's quite sensibly looking 'through' the Flight Director and ignoring his pitch bar until it says something sensible rather than follow it and end up going too close to VMO. VNAV in the 800NG will put you into the red blocks on every sector if you let it.

Off the left wing of the FPV is a > which is the Total Energy State indicator (I think thats what its called) which is indicating the energy state is perfect to maintain current IAS. If the > was above the wing it would be indicating we had excess total energy if below insufficient total energy and we'd either be accelerating or decelerating.

You can see the expanded pitch ladder and HDG indications on the horizon line which is why it sometimes feels like you're all over the place when really you are making very small corrections. If you look at the PFD you can see where the FD bars cross relative to our pitch attitude - the guidance cue in the HUD represents where the FD bars cross. Turn off the FD and no guidance cue, only your FPV.

Across the top are the FMAs (Flight Mode Annunciators) showing N1/LNAV/VNAV SPD/FD.

N1 indicates Climb Thrust

LNAV is obvious. VNAV SPD indicates the the pitch guidance is for 320KIAS.

FD is Flight Director indicating the aircraft is being hand flown if the AP was engaged it would have CMD.

Middle Top is AoB and the lower part of the segmented triangle below the AOB is your skid 'ball' with HDG below that.

Top right is AoA. Above the ALT tape is the target ALT, below the ALT tape is ROC. Top left is a wind vector.

Just above the 5 deg pitch line is the Bore sight - it indicates where the aircraft is pointing (attitude) - the FPV indicates where its going. The difference is AoA.

Down the bottom left is GS, DME etc. CRS is the course bar which is set to runway QDM for departure. We do that because in the HUD there is a gap in the horizon line corresponding to the course bar setting. If I have an engine failure at/above V1 I simply put the FPV over that gap in the horizon line and pitch for V2 and I track the extended centreline plus or minus NOTHING. Its actually quite cool when you get used to it - When I was learning the HUD the IP would fail my engine with a 25kt Xwind and I would drift off downwind exactly on HDG with him saying "Chuck stick the FPV over the gap and you'll track straight out."

"WHAT EFFING gap - just how much spare capacity do you think I have right now?"

When you finally 'get it' its awesome.

The 990 Baro in the HUD/PFD is our engine out acceleration height. Just a company SOP thing (thats normally where the IAL minima is set - we just discovered we could use it for something useful on departure as well) so we don't have to remember it while busy with an engine failure/fire after takeoff.



Edited to add the correct picture.

Below is later with the AP engaged.

That's the 40m dollar option that we couldn't talk the airline into buying, oh well. They said the guns and ammo lockers would take up to much space in First Class.

Like back in the early 90s when I was bush flying. We were operating on Bouganville Island while they were having a little civil war. We flew tactically in the Twin Otters - as in nothing between 50' and 3000'. They would shoot at the noise but could never see you long enough through the jungle canopy or as you flashed across a clearing at 20'/150KIAS. I have had tracer rounds just off my wing tip once.

The BRA (Bouganville Revolutionary Army ) apparently decided to 'make a statement to the international community' by shooting down one of our aircraft. They managed to fill one full of holes on takeoff (7.62 and 5.65 and almost blew the rudder off with an M79 Grenade) from a jungle strip, killing one passenger/wound a second, but Gerry did a great job and got the aircraft back to our base on Buka Island.

Having a beer later wth our boss and company owner (and the best boss I've ever had RIP)

Chuck what would it cost me to get you to fly on Bouganville?

Col If you find me a nice Skyraider and arm it I'll do it for free on my days off - unarmed Twin Otter forget it.

Well I got my rating last week, a license to learn about the finer details, like the pippers?You might be interested to know it is not capable of LPV approaches. There is no ADF receiver, and there is no way to present VOR information on a CDI. If we tune 121.5 on any radio, the comm box automatically turns on that audio at both seats plus both jump seats. The system uses AOA, but does not present the data directly to the pilots. I just did an international sim today, the last event before I see the airplane. Flying via over the North Pole looks easy enough, just proceed direct to NPOLE, then your destination is due south.
If you’re bored, don’t have the FMC figure the distance from NPOLE to the South Pole; there are so many solutions that it will lock your FMC out.

Not sure if you're tongue in cheek Jeff, but he was...pipper is the center of a gunsight.

Not sure if you're tongue in cheek Jeff, but he was...pipper is the center of a gunsight.

Charles Perry has had some rubbery characters on the flight deck.

Courtesy of Jay Apt and Walter........

I flew the B777 at AA for just under 20 years, both the 777-200ER and the 777-300ER. Was a FAA Designee and Check Airman on her for 12 of those years. I retired from AA in late 2017. I fly a 1978 King Air E-90 now based in Dallas, TX for a small company. Love the King Air. But I miss my 777 every single day. Had a love affair with that beautiful girl. Never flew a 787 but several of my friends do and really like the plane & her capabilities. However they all say: "She's no 777". Interesting how we get so attached to machinery. Cheers!

And neither the 777 or 787 is a 747

Bill,

727,747,757,767,787.C-310