A380 Takeoff on Friday

nyoung

nyoung

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Nathan young
Was anyone else amazed at how quickly it rotated?

I was pretty far back from the flightline (standing in the homebuilt/Lancair parking area). It seemed like the A380 was airborn by about the vintage/classic parking, which would make it a ~4500 foot takeoff roll. Very impressive.
 
It did seem quick, although it was also light on fuel and basically had no cargo or passengers. The dust cloud behind it was entertaining as well, I am sure it ingested a little more dirt than Airbus would have liked.
 
We stood in line for an hour to walk the tour through it. There are numerous water tanks in rows to simulate the weight of passengers. I don't know if they were filled or not though. They wouldn't allow us to have a look in the cockpit as I'm sure that would have created a huge traffic jam.
 
That brings up an interesting question, does it need a certain amount of weight in it (or in specific places) to make the W&B work?

I should have qualified, my remark was based on commentary over the PA by the engineer (I think that was who was talking) during the take-off proceedings. I am sure others heard this and can offer insight. Perhaps I miss interpreted what was said?
 
I only partially caught the PA announcers weight figures, but think he said a takeoff weight of 750,000 lbs, with a MGW of 1.2M ?

If anyone else caught and remembered the announcement, please feel free to correct me!



smigaldi said:
I would hope it would be a quick take off. How many tens of thousands of pounds under gross is that thing when empty?
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I found 1.2 million on a site found by Google. The Russian Freighter AN 225 is 1.3 million, IIRC.
 
nyoung said:
I only partially caught the PA announcers weight figures, but think he said a takeoff weight of 750,000 lbs, with a MGW of 1.2M ?

If anyone else caught and remembered the announcement, please feel free to correct me!
Click to expand...

Greg Bockelman said:
I found 1.2 million on a site found by Google. The Russian Freighter AN 225 is 1.3 million, IIRC.
Click to expand...

I think the 1.2 million is correct. I thought they said landing weight when it came in was 720,000 but maybe they added 30,000 pounds of fuel to get back down to MKE. Either way, WELL under gross (especially in terms of percentages) so I'd expect a very short takeoff roll. I was, however, surprised at how long the takeoff roll of the C-5 was. The C-17 did a demo a year or two ago where they did a max-perf takeoff basically empty, rotated to about a 45-degree nose-up attitude on takeoff, pulled it around in a tight turn... Wow.

Greg, I heard this week that Airbus (or someone?!?) wants a new "Super-Heavy" category. I noticed that they checked on the radio as "Airbus xxx Super" instead of "Airbus xxx Heavy". Any thoughts on that?
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Greg, I heard this week that Airbus (or someone?!?) wants a new "Super-Heavy" category. I noticed that they checked on the radio as "Airbus xxx Super" instead of "Airbus xxx Heavy". Any thoughts on that?
Click to expand...

I heard something about this a long time back. IIRC, the 380 has such wicked wake that they want to lengthen the distance between planes- the "super" reminds people of the extra distance. One comment was- the A380 hold 2x people, so 1/2 the planes. However, twice the distance between them makes the airport landing delays the same.

Someone with a better memory, please feel free to correct...
 
Cap'n Jack said:
I heard something about this a long time back. IIRC, the 380 has such wicked wake that they want to lengthen the distance between planes- the "super" reminds people of the extra distance. One comment was- the A380 hold 2x people, so 1/2 the planes. However, twice the distance between them makes the airport landing delays the same.

Someone with a better memory, please feel free to correct...
Click to expand...
Found this... http://www.flightglobal.com/article...nks-a380-wake-separation-from-heavy-jets.html
and this... http://www.flightglobal.com/article...s-show-shorter-a380-separation-distances.html
 
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