Hi everyone, I was wondering what it was like the first time you got to fly the 747? what feelings/emotions were running through your head? were you extremely nervous or calm? haha just wanted to see different peoples experiences are with this huge plane. I dont even understand how something that big can fly? im always in amazement everytime I see one take off.

uh oh...

An airplane is an airplane. Everyone is a little nervous on their first day in a new aircraft. The thing with the 74 is you have to remember hat you have a whole lot of mass behind you pushing you, meaning you cant slow down from the marker while doing 250. The hardest part about flying the 74 is taxiing it.

noob:

It humbled me. In a word: inertia.

I had 4000 hours of military time, mostly twin jet time when I went into the 747 sim the first time. I was used to fighters and trainers, where control response is very rapid, and when controls are neutralised, movement around any axis stops almost immediately.

In the 747, with lots of weight (engines and fuel) so far out from the fuselage, once you get the thing rolling, it doesn't want to stop. Pitch is similar, with such a long fuselage. I overcontrolled in bank and pitch for the first two sim sessions.

In other words, I was used to airplanes where the dynamic damping from the empennage/dihedral was greater than the inertial effect of the airframe.

The 747 (and most other heavy airliners) are exactly the opposite.

Once I learned to master the beast (and I flew the -100, 200, and -400), the word was "Majestic." It amazed me that something designed on paper in the 1960s, with slide rules (not even hand-held calculators back then), could be so big and so fast (redline is 0.92 Mach), have the ability to fly a third of the way around the world, and still turn a profit.

Pretty amazing machine.

I'll be able to give you an answer in a few weeks. Going by past experiences, I don't anticipate being nervous...

U da' MAN ...

I'll be more nervous for the oral next week...flying's the easy part(usually).

I'll second Thedude's statement about the hardest part being taxiing.

At max weight and flaps ten, Vr approaches 180 Knots. You will get up close and personal with the far end of a lot of 13,000 foot runways.

It's not as flexible in terms of slow down and go down as a 727, but better than the 737, and much better than the 757.

Joe

Concur with the above....I went to it from a 56k lb. turboprop (E-2)..
For me,
- Taxiing was/is hardest! Fine line between keeping it rolling and rolling too fast.
- Getting the be-otch to slow down/come down. The late descent in ANC sucks, especially on the classic where you get speed brakes or flaps, not both. The key I've found is to be judicious use of the landing gear to add drag.
- Inertia: one of the instructors referred to the 747 as a fat woman: plan early where you want her to go, and don't let her get going to fast in any direction.

Beyond that, and overall, I found it way easier than the Hawkeye. Doesn't have any bad habits if you plan appropriately and it's actually nice to hand fly.

Spongebob

Nice post.

I came into the classic from learjet 20's. My first takeoff on ioe was off 31L at Kennedy. 800,000lbs gtow in August! After rolling 11,000 feet all The bird would do in the Canarsie climb was around 1200 fpm! Once the wing got clean it bumbed up to 2000fpm. I thought we had lost an engine. I didn't find taxing difficult. I like being able to see the whole airport.