CE750

DC10 was also tough to get a good landing with, but the 11 compounded it with a small tail (horizontal) and a computer that controlled it... a sort of fly by wire.. this along with bad auto-throttle management could lead you to a PIO.... but even without PIO.. it had stiff legs and DIDN'T LIKE TO BOUNCE... I've seen a 747 bounce 3 times and with normal pilot technique all went well... God forbid an MD11 bounce even once and you not take it around immediately... well, we've all seen what happens then..

HercDriver130

Lets see... he has never landed a 727 or a 737 but he thinks he understands how they landed because he has sim time in them...... in my experience ( probably 6 or 7 different types of C/D sims ) none of them landed like the real airplane.... totally different animal. The 747 sim... and the actual airplane are worlds apart.

HercDriver130

So JamesNObrakes hum......

Lets see... he has never landed a 727 or a 737 but he thinks he understands how they landed because he has sim time in them...... in my experience ( probably 6 or 7 different types of C/D sims ) none of them landed like the real airplane.... totally different animal. The 747 sim... and the actual airplane are worlds apart.

Twin Wasp

My side job involves a level D 727 sim. We get Feds in there all the time, "This thing's a joke, it's barely level B." I point out that it's a early 1970s sim and grandfathered to 1970s level D standards and if they just push the yoke forward an inch or two after the 20 foot call out we'll have our fillings intact next time.

DirectTo

We use two sims at C5...one of them does a decent job, landings aside, of representing the airplane. The other one (in ATL) is a total POS and flies nothing like the other sim, let alone the airplane. The only thing I can compare it to is how I would expect it to react if you had only roll spoilers, no ailerons, and a ton of slack in the elevator cables...very loose and delayed.

Really makes training fun.

CE750

Sims are basically full motion procedures trainers. You learn to fly in a Cessna or on the case of type specific training on IOE.

EvilMonkey

An old Braniff guy once told me something to the effect of "The 727 is a safe airplane. It climbs like a safe, cruises like a safe, and lands like a safe."

CE750

A lot of high sweep jets climb like dogs initially. The 74 is the same as was the tristar from what friends who flew that one told me. However, once you clean up that wing, and get to a proper climb speed (usually very fast, like 330 or more) they climb like a bat out of hell with all that excess power the engines on planes like that have.

EvilMonkey

Isn't MMO on the 72 crazy high for an airliner, like .90 or something?

ATCsaidDoWhat

I spent many happy hours in the 727. It got a bad rap back in the early days when guys transitioning from props and turboprops flew it like them. On climb out, let let her build up speed and gently bring her up and she climbs nicely...even the lead sleds (-7's) could be made reasonable.

On the approach, get your speed and set the fuel flows @ 3500# and she'd settle right into the grove. The secret to a greaser was to not yank the throttles to flight idle; but to gently walk them closed. If you slap them closed, you get a pitch change and a firm landing. If you walk them, and as you do that, gently break your rate of descent and slowly raise the nose, she'll roll right on. Then you can fly the nose down nice and easy as you bring the reversers in.

One of the nicest I ever got was on a -200 going into MDW. Put the runway numbers in the windshield where I wanted them and closed the power as we crossed Cicero. Rolled it on and stopped at the midfield with moderate brakes and reverse. Really ticked off the check airman who dropped the masks more than once.

The caveat: A light airplane (like a ferry flight) was really touchy. Much tougher to get a nice one out of, but doable.

Still miss the old girl. She was a blast to fly.