Originally Posted by
The Dominican
Max thrust at light weights in the 767 and you are going to be climbing at more than 5,000 fpm with a deck angle higher than 20 degrees . . .
I would say that this is likely something that most pilots with non-heavy experience don't immediately think about, the HUGE difference, not only pure weight wise, but % wise too, between a 'light' and a 'heavy' t/o in a very large aircraft.
Think a 747 out of JFK. Could be just going empty to Boston, or could be going to Seoul full of 14+ hours of fuel and passengers/cargo. We're talking a difference of over 300,000 lbs here b/t these two t/o scenarios (more than 125% of the entire Emirates t/o weight miscalculation), a difference of almost 40%, weight wise, b/t min and max scenarios. The engines obviously have to have the thrust to do an 800K lb t/o, so, if you give them full power but 40% less weight to pull into the air to BOS (think of an 18K lb ERJ @ max thrust, 'Cornholio'), you've got a serious amount of power, considering the 74 will usually reduce T/O thrust out of JFK @ MTOW.
The centerline thrust difference is one thing with heavies v/s RJ's and military fighters, but the huge weight range that a 'heavy' operates in is a easy concept to grasp once pointed out, but perhaps not immediately obvious without personal experience.