Thanks for the replies.

Johnso... the reverse blast hitting the rudder and rendering it useless is a different issue. It resulted in AA not allowing us to go above 1.3 EPR any time on the reverse. That was a contributing factor in the loss of directional control in our accident in LIT in '98.

We could never deploy the buckets until the nosewheel was on the ground. However I haven't been on the -80 in a couple years, someone told me they changed it where you could deploy them as long as the nosewheel is heading down.