Originally Posted by
Airhoss
Sounds like the 900 is a very nostalgic airplane. It performs like and has about the same flight envelope as an old straight pipe 707or the short wing DC-8-61. Boeing should be proud of themselves for putting a microwave in the cave and reintroducing the performance joys of jet flying crica 1962. As a good friend of mine who is now back in the left seat of the 747-400 after three fun filled years sitting in the right seat of the 737 over at L-CAL describes the 900. The things has no go, and it's got no stop and has ref and V-speeds that are made artificially WAY fast because you need the extra smash to avoid a tail strike on take off and landing.
With well over 3,000 hours of737-200,300 and 500 time I can promise you that those versions of the 737 didn't have these issues. Even the small engine 200, it was a dog on a hot day but it had a pretty good wing.
I realize the 900 is our ride now. But that doesn't mean it's not an over stretched over done little POS. The Bus has it's issues but it doesn't have near the performance issues that the 900 has. Plain and simple the 900 is NOT a 757-200 replacement and it never will be. The 757-200 is one of the nicest flying, best performing airplanes ever built.
Things on here are getting blown out of proportion a little!! I've been on the 7/8/9 since we've flown them. Also the 200/300 when we had them. A plane is a plane some are just more challangening than others in certain situations!! The 8/9 is one of those planes!! I've NEVER been weight restricted except SNA and I think that has more to do with airport than airplane! Last time load planning wanted to wt restrict me was in Den w/snowstorm. They put me on 34r with a r/w restriction. Said it was contaminated (it wasn't even close) I asked load planner (in ord) to run #'s on 34L (much longer) no contam. had no idea what I was talking about. I asked for supervisor and came up w/20000lbs more. I think our BIG problem is we have many in load planning that are NEW since the experienced ones didn't want to make move from IAH to ORD. Also, many new pilots that were never FE's running #'s thinking about ways to make weights work. (I was in Den once on the 727 running #'s as engineer and we switched r/w 3 times do to heat/wind/alt!) I think it's a skill that's lost with advent of computer!
Also, with the stalls, if your at the top of your limits in wave or storm topping there are other issues and it's not with the plane!! Go lower or go around, not that hard!!!
