747 pilots, how does the queen of the skies hold up today?
Posted by Basic_Shallot8393@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 106 comments
and what’s it like flying my dream
Posted by Basic_Shallot8393@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 106 comments
and what’s it like flying my dream
Agent62@reddit
I never got over how fucking large that plane was every time I did the walk around.
Flies great and had it's quirks. Pretty amazing feat of engineering if you think about the time it was designed, built, flown.
Figit090@reddit
How long does a walk-around take?
I feel like the sheer number of steps would make it pretty long.
So you ever do control surface checks with someone at the controls, or is that MX's job?
frostyhongo@reddit
Can’t speak for the 74 but the 380 walk around is a long trip especially mid summer. Flight control check on it is like any Airbus, do it on taxi on the way out. I’d assume the 74 is the same. Should have all the displays for deflections.
Figit090@reddit
Cool, thanks! I've been curious how large aircraft do things. Not the same as peeking at hinges and nuts on a C150...
frostyhongo@reddit
You can’t see much on a Walk around like a Cessna. Anything bigger than a metro you can no longer see the flaps/aileron internals so it’s more of a general glance around to make sure all the pins are stowed. Cowlings are closed up properly and no landing gear problems. The majority of the time the biggest things you find are the things above. Most issues get deferred and you can fly without much of an issue.
Picklemerick23@reddit
every time I’m going .78 in a 737 I wish I was going .84 in a 747.
Best part was taxiing it around as a first officer.
Amf2446@reddit
Lmao that’s so fast
Davito32@reddit
747 limit is 45,100 ft and 0.90 Mach.
Figit090@reddit
HOLY SHIT. Somehow this fact evaded me until now. That's insane.
Scottzilla90@reddit
My record is M 0.96 in turbulence… the only indication was a warning… She handled it so well
Figit090@reddit
Hah, wow. Did the warning and recorded speed require inspection after that then?
Scottzilla90@reddit
Yes, every exceedance requires an inspection. It’s minor and I believe it’s just a visual inspection of the flaps
Figit090@reddit
Cool, thanks for the reply. I feel so far from any of this, just buying a c150 this week hopefully... it's cool to talk to people that have flown and hot overspeed on a 747 😂
Scottzilla90@reddit
I’ve got exactly 152 hours on a C152.. totally by accident. Enjoy the journey!
Figit090@reddit
Haha, that's awesome. I'll try and do that within the next year. 😁🤙. Thanks for the kind words
Davito32@reddit
Vne is more of a prop thing. In jets, structural integrity is not what limits the airspeed (sometimes). It's the speed of sound. it's known as Vmo and you can't really exceed it because it causes a high speed stall. Even though the plane itself it's under the speed of sound, SOME part of it ( usually the part of the wing where air accelerates) will be over it, causing an aerodynamic failure. Sweptback wings, which all transport category jet use, only really fly correctly under the speed of sound.
Figit090@reddit
Woooahhh ok, that's cool. I'm excited to learn more about that. I'm interested to know what happens when a large airframe stalls like that and how recovery is made.
Acrobatic_Shine6865@reddit
What would be the n1 value for cruising at .9 mach? Thats really fast
Davito32@reddit
depends on the weight. altitude. air density. bunch of stuff. 747 has some different engine models, both PW and GE, but it usually has A LOT of power. The one I fly has 4 engines with 54000 pounds of thrust each. Its a performance beast.
Acrobatic_Shine6865@reddit
I mean give me a ballpark at a typical flight ops. Just curious on how it compares to narrow body cruise
swakid8@reddit
.84 was just chillin… You were flying slow… -8F was happy at .87 .88
Picklemerick23@reddit
Oh for sure. .84 was minimal effort.
solmoh@reddit
What surprised me is the main wheel is same Part number as nose wheel. They are same and interchangeable. Correct me but I don’t think any other airplane in the world has that.
Gullible-Revenue8152@reddit
My neighbour used to fly it for CX and loved it. One thing he told me doesn’t quite stack up though was that given the size of the wing and the cushioning of the ground effect underneath it, he said was almost impossible not to get a decent landing out of it. Surely it’s not that easy?
PWJT8D@reddit
The video of Lufthansa burying one at LAX determined that to be a lie
LateralThinkerer@reddit
Here you go. Maybe it was a student pilot?
PWJT8D@reddit
Nobody flying at an airline is a student pilot.
LateralThinkerer@reddit
r/thatsthejoke
PWJT8D@reddit
Jokes are funny, keep working on your bit, this one landed worse than Lufthansa.
Horror-River-3861@reddit
Bruh lighten up
PWJT8D@reddit
Mine was a thousand times more funny than his attempt.
Okay maybe not one thousand times, more like 1.5x.
FlowerGeneral2576@reddit
She’s big, she’s beautiful, and she hauls ass. Was my favorite plane as a kid and she’s my favorite plane still. Nuf said.
General174512@reddit
A380 would like to speak with you.
But yeah, the 747 is really cool. Second favorite plane for me.
swakid8@reddit
The last 747 will be flying the last day the A380 is parked for good…
Tony_Three_Pies@reddit
Hell, there were still Classics flying when the first A380 was scrapped which is kind of crazy.
The A380 is physically impressive but fairly soulless. The 74 will always be the Queen.
swakid8@reddit
Aint that the truth…
General174512@reddit
You're probably right. I mean the A380 won't last long by only carrying passengers, but 747 can carry cargo, so it'll probably outlive the A380.
swakid8@reddit
You will also notice how the last A380 off the production line rolled off without much fan fare vs the last 747 rolled off with a ton of fan fare….
The 747 was a game changer, A380 was project pushed forward by ego that didn’t make business sense…
_toodamnparanoid_@reddit
I've seen this movie and its many, many sequels.
woop_woop_pull_upp@reddit
Not "probably". It will!
swakid8@reddit
Yup, it will still be flying…
SeatPrize7127@reddit
Wrong sub, sim boy
ApatheticSkyentist@reddit
I’ll have you know I have 10,000 hours in an SR-71 sir!
woop_woop_pull_upp@reddit
"sim boy" LMAO
Ldghead@reddit
When the A380s are all flown to the boneyards, they will be ferrying the pilots home in B747s.
VanDenBroeck@reddit
Which have you actually flown?
FlowerGeneral2576@reddit
Hmm… big I’ll give to you, but beautiful?😏
capn_starsky@reddit
380 looks like a flying forehead.
BrianBash@reddit
Holy shit 😂
You know it has a gummy smile.
CCLF@reddit
Girls got curves, what can I say?
Prof_Slappopotamus@reddit
Girl is shaped like a box. Even the Shorts 360 has better curves.
General174512@reddit
Depends on your type. I'll give the point to both
LookoutBel0w@reddit
The layout for the pilots is much more comfortable. The flight deck is easily 2-3x bigger
FlowerGeneral2576@reddit
Man an A320 cockpit is bigger. Still love it though.
noknockers@reddit
Plus sized model
Final-Carpenter-1591@reddit
Big? Sure. Like a hippo. Beautiful? No. Fast. Yeah but 747 is still faster.
Acrobatic_Shine6865@reddit
Whats the mtow for the 747? Zfw?
Scottzilla90@reddit
477,500kg
Scottzilla90@reddit
MZFW is about 334,000kg
Acrobatic_Shine6865@reddit
Holy. When yoh see the numbers you really start to visualize the massiveness of such jet. And the genius engineering too
spitfire5181@reddit
I like the 777 better but I never flew the -8. Which probably has enough system automation to make it on par with the triple.
Two things I miss; the speed and the extra redundancies.
It's the only airliner I've flown that really makes you work on those swept wing aerodynamic principles.
Also also for people that haven't flown it, an outboard engine V1 cut you're basically rudder to the floor. Just because you have 4 engines doesn't make them any easier.
blumenlied_@reddit
Sorry but what do you mean by swept wing aerodynamic principles? Are you referring to its flight characteristics or flying it within its flight envelope?
Cunning_Stun@reddit
He means the secondary effect of yaw
spitfire5181@reddit
When yawing the advancing wing creating more lift. The 747 has a higher sweep angle than most airliners. So the rolling aspect when yawing seems to be more exaggerated.
For me I don't notice in other jets but coming out of a crab on landing or a poorly handled V1 cut your having to work the ailerons a lot more to keep the wings level.
Bunslow@reddit
transsonic nonsense
PM_MeYour_pitot_tube@reddit
Cool band name
IJNShiroyuki@reddit
He probably means it gets close to Mach buffeting boundary.
fireandlifeincarnate@reddit
Aren’t rudders typically sized to be juuuuust large enough TO control the aircraft at minimum one engine our speed?
blueingreen85@reddit
I think so. Anything beyond that is extra drag and weight.
_toodamnparanoid_@reddit
Story of my life.
maloo22@reddit
Remind me
IHGrewardsking@reddit
I miss the plane so much, only flew the -400. Handles so well and the performance is unmatched. Took off one time pretty much empty on a short flight repo, WS advisories in effect so we took off the derate on the engines. I think at its peak I saw 12000 FPM on the VSI
LPNTed@reddit
I have a side question.... How many 74 pilots actively flying today, are old enough they flew anything older than a -400?
RAAFStupot@reddit
There's 'young' pilots flying 200s today.
KissFromYourMommy@reddit
Kalitta didn’t retire their last -200 until 2017
Dinosaur_Wrangler@reddit
There are a few senior ACMI operator captains out there at Atlas (and probably National, Kalitta, etc) that got their start as FEs on the -200 that I've personally talked to in the last few years.
Informal-Coyote-5143@reddit
“Back on the Classic”
Vonbismark2@reddit
Hehehe im sitting on a 400 waiting for maintenance to fix it.
Scottzilla90@reddit
They probably woke you up and sent you to the plane knowing the daily wasn’t done
somewhat_moist@reddit
Had the same experience on 787 as a passenger hehe. Had a nice nap though
Final-Carpenter-1591@reddit
The mf carried the space shuttle. Next question.
Cool-Acanthaceae8968@reddit
I mean.. when you’re only crossing a continent instead of an ocean you can leave the shuttle’s weight in fuel behind—and it produces its own lift!
Final-Carpenter-1591@reddit
The space shuttle has tiny wings for its weight. It certainly never came close to accounting for its weight even at max cruise. Plus those little wings won't make hardly any lift until cruise speed. So it's all on the 747 to get up there. And then accounting for the massive amount of drag the shuttle had cannot be understated. I wouldn't be surprised if the set the aoa of the shuttle so that it produced no lift, just to limit off centerline drag.
Again because of drag. The 747 was far less fuel efficienct. So actually it carried nearly a full bag of fuel just to make it that far (3/4 full if I remember right. So about 300,000ibs). The shuttle was a little over 200,000 ibs when ready for piggy back. The weight was important, but again. Drag is so much more. No other way to put it, it's incredible, and nothing like it will likely ever be attempted.
Figit090@reddit
For all those responding, I want you all to know how awesome you all are for working hard to get where you are. I hope I get to ride in a 747 someday, let alone fly one. Amazing that a horizontal skyscraper can fly like she does, and seems like such a cool privilege to be a part of it.
Tony_Three_Pies@reddit
It’s a big airplane and flies like one but I really enjoyed my time on her.
The -8 really is the perfect evolution of that airframe. They gave it a remarkable performance boost, bolted on those beautiful wings and then gave it just enough of a systems upgrade to give it what you’re missing from the -400 without over doing it
I miss it.
Figit090@reddit
This actually inspires me to try and get to fly one someday. Even little jets excite me, and I've never flown one.
Turkstache@reddit
Long haul is so... frikkin'... boring. Having large beds is nice.
Handflying is easy but control pressures are annoyingly high. It's incredibly stable so there's not much workload.
All of the flying is procedural and doesn't push the edges of the flight envelope. This is a GOOD thing, but for all the romantics, it means that your experience is going to be roughly the same if you flew any aircraft with that mentality. If it had to be flown tactically, you dont have many reasons to push the envelope anyway. Our company doesn't go anywhere uncontrolled, so there's pretty much no decisionmaking to be had.
Airline types already know this - Most of your workload is FMS management. Flying Class Bravo is not a big deal. What can be annoying is runway/approach swaps, but there's nothing particularly thrilling about punching buttons or trying to communicate.
Don't get me wrong. If this is the only airline job I'll ever have, I'm glad it's in a 747 over pretty much any other airliner (in a flying a relatively rare and gigantic plane is cooler than not kind of way). But there is nothing about this jet that would make me think twice over leaving.
swakid8@reddit
747 is your only type? Wait till ya fly another type…. You’ll, develop a differences of opinion… Rather if it’s good or bad… Trust me…
Bunslow@reddit
always appreciate the minority view, and it's refreshing to hear "planes gonna plane" at the end of the day
Born_Apricot5730@reddit
The 747 is truly an incredible airplane. I haven’t flown the -8, only the 400s but this airplane is an incredible performing airplane. It’s one of the easiest airplanes to land I’ve ever flown. I would say it is my favorite airplane to fly second to the Super Cub. The bunks on the 400F are nice and comfortable. Flying with double crews makes this job feel like a laid back hobby sometimes. It really is probably one of the best if not the best airliners to ever exist. It deserves all the praise it has ever received and will continue to receive. The Queen is truly majestic.
Independent-Good926@reddit
I want to fly one as much as the next guy but it seems like a lot of people say they’re a big pos
SATSewerTube@reddit
Are you sure you’re not accidentally subtracting 11? Because the 737 in all (modern) variants is absolutely a piece of shit. However, I’ve heard nothing but praise for the 747
Nighthawk-FPV@reddit
The 737 should have been replaced instead of making the NG, change my mind
InternationalTie504@reddit
Wait until you see how the 737-10 avoids tail strike on takeoff!
ZOB_oo_land@reddit
The NG was a perfectly fine airplane. If you had said the MAX then I'd agree with you.
flightist@reddit
It’d be crazy to change your mind. If they’d done it then, we’d probably have a hell of an airplane.
Tony_Three_Pies@reddit
“…accidentally subtracting 11?”
The 736 is terrible.
kussian@reddit
Is this the smallest one on ng family?
FlowerGeneral2576@reddit
From a different time? Yes. But a piece of shit? I’ve never heard anyone who’s actually flown one call it that.
Independent-Good926@reddit
I’ve seen a couple guys on here say that, could’ve been sarcastic I guess. I’m not saying I think they’re a piece of shit. They’re probably the reason I want to be a pilot in the first place.
JustLightChop@reddit
Was an absolute joy to fly. Nothing like taking off at just under 1 million pounds then climbing out at 300+ knots no problem. Also both the 747-400F and -8F a comfortable and spacious bunks.
Grumbles19312@reddit
While we can’t get nearly as close to the 1 million pound mark weight-wise (561,000 is our max lol) we routinely climb out at 300+ (345 indicated being our go fast climb speed) and cruise between 0.84-0.87 all day long in the 787. And it’s whisper quiet up front.
JPAV8R@reddit
She’s great. Nothing happens too fast. Built for the most senior of senior pilots at the airlines in her heyday so she’s gentle on you.
Nothing feels better than a rolled on landing in the 74 knowing that the days of this are numbered.
The bunk is nice too.
Some of them are showing their age but the last -8F rolled off the assembly line 3 years ago. So still plenty of airframes to fly that are just getting started.
Even when the schedule sucks and I’m tired it’s still a privilege to fly her.
swakid8@reddit
She is awesome to fly! It hauls ass and it can carry a shit ton of pay load… The -8F was my favorite variant to fly… I also flew the -400F , -400BCF, -400 passenger bird.
I had the opportunity ride in First Class of the -8 on Korean Air.
The 747 was my dream to fly as a kid… She still is my favorite type that I have flown so far today… I can’t say the same for the 757 though….
Davito32@reddit
It's the best designed airplane I've ever flown. 10/10.
rFlyingTower@reddit
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