Originally Posted by
cadetdrivr
I flew the 727 for my first "real" aviation job. Our dispatch would consistently plan long range cruise as we were always near the range limit given our routes. The salty old ex-rEAL/PAA/BNF CA's would tell us youngins to ignore the plan and just fly fast for the whole profile. We always landed early and up on gas.
Same Captain as previously mentioned. I introduce myself in ops and let him know that it's my second trip with Mother U. He looks at me with a smile and says, "SO!, You know the TK way! Today, you will learn the EASTERN way!
Climb profile was 250 to 10,000' then 300 knots to M.80 then M.80 to cruise then accelerate to the flight plane, usually .84.
I start to accelerate to 300 knots at 10K He then tells me to push it over a bit until I get the VMO clacker and then go uphill with it. "Click-click'-click-click-------------click---------------------click-----------------------------------------click with the IAS needle laying right on the VMO needle. Then when reaching cruise he had me leave the power up and just wait and see how much speed we could get before reducing power and synching the fans. Then once at TOD throttles to idle and Click-click-click-----------------------------------click.
The whole key was keeping the clicks to a minimum, yet never straying more than a needle width from the VMO needle. This is all assuming smooth air of course.
We were super early and got to the gate up on gas. We then went to a great Gentlemans refreshment establishment that evening.
Good times.