Thread: Words fail me.

While working airside at the airport some years ago one day, I was interrupted by a guy I was working with Who told me to have a look at a cargo 747 taking off - it was right up the end of the North/South runway at Tullamarine and we watched as it lumbered slowly down the runway - while not quite as late as this plane, it wasn’t far off and it only just got off the ground and made almost no altitude as it flew away. He explained that the cargo planes were stacked to absolute capacity so needed all the runway and a prayer to get off the ground at times. Will always remember that.

Not in the same league, but about fifty years ago I was at the Mt Hagen show in PNG (we had flown up from Wewak for the day, a plane load of us in an Islander).

The showground adjoined the airfield, so we got a front seat audience when there was an airport emergency. I can't remember the type, but it was single engined.

Apparently a pilot from the coastal area, possibly a visitor from down south, and according to the story I heard later, either did not know, or forgot, the need to lean the mixture for takeoff when hot and high. At any rate, he managed to use the full 5,000ft runway to get airborne, declared an emergency when he could not climb, and did a circuit in ground effect before landing again.

Poor quality video unfortunately

..... but it shows a past Russian effort in Canberra to get a fair amount of SS off the runway

Russian Il-76 Heavy Transport (trying to) depart Canberra - YouTube

And on the other side of the coin, this happened only a couple of weeks ago. An An-124 overshot the runway after one of the engines decided that part of it didn't like being on the wing anymore. That's not good news for heavy hauling.

Video: Tanks Remove Damaged An-124 Following Crash - Simple Flying

Volga-Dnepr Grounds Antonov AN-124 Fleet Indefinitely | Airways Magazine

Originally Posted by cripesamighty

And on the other side of the coin, this happened only a couple of weeks ago. An An-124 overshot the runway after one of the engines decided that part of it didn't like being on the wing anymore. That's not good news for heavy hauling.

Video: Tanks Remove Damaged An-124 Following Crash - Simple Flying

Volga-Dnepr Grounds Antonov AN-124 Fleet Indefinitely | Airways Magazine

Tanks? Really, don't they have Land Rovers in Siberia.

That took me back a long while. Flew on one of these from Nairobi via Aden to Moscow in 1988 (aeroflot!) , and also flew on the VC-10 (BOAC), which had the same engine configuration with my parents in and out of Kano in Northern Nigeria in the late 1960's. While modern planes are doubtless safer there seems to have been more variation in plane designs in the past (and of course the same applies to cars IMHO).

Thanks for posting.

Michael