I was working in the Tower yesterday when a FDX Airbus calls "ready to go" for RWY 18C. After clearing the Airbus for takeoff, tossing the strip holder in the bucket, the paper flight progress strip in the pile at my position... I look up and see the Airbus gear-up and airborne by Taxiway KILO!

"Nice short field take off!" was my comment as I shipped him to departure.

Not to be outdone, and MD10 then calls ready to go and manages to get airborne and gear up prior to Taxiway KILO!

From the Aprroach end of RWY 18C to Taxiway Kilo is approximately 3,000 feet. VERY impressive performance for such large aircraft. We normally watch in horror as these Heavy Jets eat-up the last remaining feet of concrete for some of the over-water flights.

MEM_ATC

If you recall the flight numbers, I will be glad to look them up. For some reason I have seen more re-positioning flights this month. Those are often empty or very light with empty cans. The v1/vr speeds can be as low as 118 kts for the A300. The are fun to fly!

I did an MD-11 ferry flight out of MIA in the winter once - 60 degrees, max power for maintenance, 30k of ballast fuel was all we were carrying. Our clearance was straight ahead to 3,000 - we levelled off and we hadn't passed the end of the runway yet....

The MD-11 is like a rocket ship when it's lightly loaded. Taking off out of Hong Kong with maybe 30,000 pounds of freight and not a lot of gas, the thing would climb at greater than 6,000 FPM to over 20,000 Feet. An amazing aircraft and wonderful to fly. I miss her terribly.

Did you just move from Philly?

There have been several maint test flights out of MEM in the last few days. If the flight number is 90xx, it is usually a test flight. No cargo and not much fuel makes it fun.

"From the Aprroach end of RWY 18C to Taxiway Kilo is approximately 3,000 feet. VERY impressive performance for such large aircraft. We normally watch in horror as these Heavy Jets eat-up the last remaining feet of concrete for some of the over-water flights."

As you'll recall, it was raining yesterday. In the Airbus you usually takeoff using a computed reduced power setting, thus prolonging engine life. If "wet runway" is selected on our performance computers, the power setting defaults to Max power. I flew to KMCI yesterday with a very light fuel load and not very much freight. Using Max power under those contitions, the Airbus is almost like a rocket until the airplane reaches 1500 feet and the power is reduced.
As for Airbusi stopping on the runway after landing, thats mostly idiots that have no situational awareness in regards as to what's behind them.

I bet the Md-10 was a -30 series. Even empty, the -10 series would use up more than 3,000 feet. I normally fly the -10 going west coast and we always have to use the center runway for performance. Max power, packs off and we still can't use the outers.

MX727,

Nope, but I know who you're looking for. He's still here and doing quite well.

MEM_ATC

He's across the street from me. Just curious if he was logged on. He told me about the shakeups. I just don't understand. The late shift knows how to handle our operation and I hate to see that go away.