I am basically a military fast jet guy but had the good fortune to fly B747 'Classics' for a couple of years, mainly -200 but we also had a -100. I thought that it was a delightful aeroplane to fly. No flight control system augmentation other than the yaw damper, 0.855M cruise, routine landings on a 7000 ft runway; magnificent. We had a company culture where we could hand fly it until established at climb speed and, on a nice day when you were acclimatised, take the autopilot out at top of descent. Some of the most fun sorties were pick-ups from maintenance when we had just 20t of fuel and did a max EPR take-off! On one of my last trips I closed the throttles at 28 000 ft, didn't use any power until 900 ft and was stabilised at 700 ft (company minima 500 ft). At touchdown my eye height was greater than my display authorisation minima (for small/fast aeroplanes). I was one of the pilots who flew an air-to-air photography sortie for marketing - flying a 747 close line astern against a LearJet was fascinating and a great tribute to the fantastic flying qualities of a great aeroplane. Happy days.