Wait till you go into those airports with narrow taxiways, such as Mansted England. Or runways where you have to make a 180 to get back to the nearest exit. The pucker factor is high on those turns.

If you dont get nervous, you either don't know enough to be nervous or your lying.

"Dear God, please don't let me screw this up."

I found it very easy to taxi and maneuver. You could see everything around you. Unfortunately, after being cleared for takeoff, the A/C left me at the end of the runway. I didn't catch back up with the airplane until somewhere over Alaska :D

It is a great A/C to fly.

I guess the 9400ft and 10,000ft stretches in IAH must make them pucker then. I always see them eating it up. Looks fun.

The 747 handles short fields quite well, just not at max weight. Empty weight is around 400,000 pounds depending on model, and max structural takeoff weight goes up to 910,000 pounds for some models. If you have an empty airplane with four 63,000 pound thrust engines the acceleration is spectacular.

Joe:D

Well, I'm not lying, so according to you I must be stupid...:rolleyes: What's there to be nervous about? Anxious or excited sure, nervous? I have enough confidence in my abilities to get the thing back on the deck. If I didn't after 15+ years of flying, I think there would be something wrong.

Hmmmm...... Well first I would say centerline. The main gear is 75 feet wide. Stay on center line and all is well. Just like any other airplane. And the book spells out how to do a 180 using the visual ques available on the flight deck. You can turn the airplane around easily with the body gear steering. Have to be careful to enter the turn with enough energy though. You dont want to blow anything over behind you with thrust! :eek: If the body gear steering is mel'd it gets a little tricky.

It's been years since I was furloughed from the -400 and I've been on everything from DC-10 airbus MD,s you name it. And they all feel tynie and insignificant compared to that Mamouth docile jumbo.

From my relative who's a 74-200 F/O, I heard that the -200 is a nice airplane to fly, and some what easier because of the lack of "automation" than compared to modern airplanes. He has 4 checklists or so and is done compared to the MD-11, but heard it's very cramped, like an ERJ. I can't wait to be flying one my self, but that's a few years.

Its a blast to take off empty if you don't have a low initial altitude. 4L at ORD was no problem.

Main gear is 36'2". There's a cool set of photos on the net of a South African 747 landing on a 50' wide runway, I think it was only 3900' long!