Originally Posted by
Atlas Shrugged
Here's another head scratcher............"The Vodka Burner is Rolling"
Atlas, for a long time I worked across the street from Boeing Field and we had a good view of the airport operations. We'd sometimes get AN-124s coming in, bringing in 777 engines when one of the engine manufactures got a bit behind on their deliveries (at the time they did all the engine build-up there at Boeing Field, before trucking the engines to Everett or Renton to hang on a new aircraft right before rollout).
Anyway, watching the AN-124's takeoff, that video isn't too far from the norm that we witnessed. It was quite common, when taking off to the north (towards Seattle)(which was the direction our windows faced so we had a good view), they'd barely get off the ground by the end of the runway, barely climb, and still be at maybe 1000 feet when they went out over Elliott Bay off the Seattle waterfront (it honestly looked as if they were too low to clear some of the taller buildings if they'd flown over downtown). Note that they were usually empty aside from fuel when they departed.
I can only assume that the engines were so fragile that they'd do the maximum possible derate for takeoff, with a hand close to the throttles to give it more thrust if absolutely necessary.