----- Original Message -----
From: "Elmshoot"
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.military.naval
To:
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 4:12 PM
Subject: 737 MMA


He is pulling your leg too! No MMAs exist at the moment, although Boeing
made the circuit of VP bases with a 737 during the competition.

Tom,
I wasn't trying to pull anyones leg. Most readers on this NG know enough
to
understand certain assumtions are made. In this case I thought everyone
understood that the plane flown was the proposed MMA a 737. Purported to
be
like or similar to the the final product. At this point my buddy who has a
butt
load of P-3 time found the planes low altitude handeling unacceptable. I
am
taking his comments as sincere and at face value.

Sparky

Sparky
-------------------tom sez----------------
Understood!

I wonder what his specific handling quality issues were?

The P-3 is no prince in some regards, for instance it has fairly high
control forces and rides like a Humvee, compared to some other large
aircraft such as the Herk. Of
course it wasn't designed to be a comfortable passenger aircraft (in spite
of it's lineage), but a fairly responsive tactical aircraft. I have over
5ooo hours in it and still think it is a lot of fun to fly! Of course I
like the Herk, 707 and CV-880 too, but each has it's foibles. You haven't
had fun until you excite a dutch roll in an 880 or a 707!

I think another issue is that the mission of VP is changing, so taking the
whole mission into account and new sensors, there probably will not be much
low level (200-300) ASW as in the past. I suspect flying the MMA around a
4000 yard mad trapping circle at 200 feet might be a bit nerve wracking!

Tom