"Capt.Doug" wrote in message
news
"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
I have to admit; that bird was about the laziest airplane on approach
I've
ever been in :-)) About halfway down the slope I managed to get ahead of
it
somewhere in the vicinity of where I had to be to satisfy the FD109. It
was
the flattest touchdown I've ever made. Had the chief pilot of the line in
the right seat. (Just a crew on board for a ferry flight) At least he
didn't
seem all that scared :-))

I got to watch some sim evaluations for job interview candidates once. It
was wonderfully entertaining. The candidates came from regionals flying
glass cockpit CRJs. They were used to sprightly performance with good
power.
Their scanning skills were diminished because of the glass and the
autothrottles. The evals took place in the stretch DC-8 sim. One of
candidates actually landed close to the runway. All of them went out of
box
with a ghostly shade of gray. Very humbling.

D.

I know it was humbling for me. I did manage to get it there and down in one
piece, but I had the advantage of one hell of a good "coach" riding shotgun
with me.
Coming out of fighters and into something like the stretch 8 cold is a hell
of a shock. Naturally, being at least "somewhat experienced :-)" I expected
the airplane to be sluggish and a handful. It wasn't really. I found it
fairly predictable actually, and after a bit of "learning" I managed a fair
takeoff through a smooth double rotation to clear the tail.
I decided early on that a stabilized approach would be my only chance at
putting it on the runway, and taking it around would have cost the company a
few bucks to say the least, so I was careful and got it stabilized at the
marker. From then on it was just flying the director and trying to grease it
on. It jarred just a bit at touchdown and that was my own fault having
slightly misjudged the distance from the cockpit to the ground :-)
Anyway, I walked away with a new respect for folks who handle these monsters
on a daily basis.
Don't tell anyone, but secretly I was glad to get back in the old P51
again!! :-)
Dudley Henriques