Big John wrote in
:



Bertie

Tell the story about when 727 first came out and a couple crashed
during flare (one was at SLC as I remember).

Bird was dirtiest aircraft I had seen up to that time when on final.
With everything out and down and Stews dragging their feet out of back
stair well didn't hardly look much different than a flying brick )


Oh yeah, it could get a sink rate going that was just horrific. Even
clean it comes down like a brick. THe speedbrakes are quite effective
too, so if you wanted to you could get down real fast compared to other
airliners.


You can correct my remembrance. Bird started to get a bad name and
lots of quick investigations took place. It was found that if pilots
were sloppy flying the handbook airspeed on final and got just a
couple of knots slow they couldn't flare the bird.


Well, you're right except the flare part. What was happening was that
thy would get a messy appraoch going and they would revert to their
previous experince on DC-6s and what not and just haul the power back
and get it going down. Problem with the 727 was that that rate could
easily top 3,000 fpm in just a few seconds and it could take eight
seconds or so for the engines to spool up to approach power again. The
drill with all of these airplanes is to be absolutely on the glide,
fully configured, with the speed at or at least close to, final approach
speed at 1,000', no later. This is a good idea in most jets, but
absolutely essential in the 727. I don't know the specifics of any of
the accidnets, but there was one in Chicago, I think, where they didn;t
even make the airfield. Lots of others, as you say, where the meeting
with the runway didn't go so good.


The fix was to
change the operating manual and raised approach speed 3 or so knots
(just a tweak) and bird became one of the best and safest birds
flying.

Correct me where I have remembered the details wrong.

Don;t know about the increased approach speed, but they might have. I
think the training was probably the key to it's improved record. The
guys flying it, even the military guys, were often coming off of
airplanes that you could toss around at will. The 727 really had to be
flown in a very stable way al the way down. One other thing they did at
some point before I flew it, was to delete the 40 flap position. All
they did was put a bolt on the flap gate to restrict it's movement!


Bertie