Originally Posted by
rog747
Remember folks back in the day long haul aircraft came back in early morning and sat all day at LHR for an evening flight. So there was slack in the day.
They still do (SAA for one, sit at LHR all day) and until recent years Qantas did some cruise ship charters LHR to IST and BCN with their 747's from LHR during their slack day time.
I got back from IST one Saturday afternoon as a non rev on one...
SAA don't use 747s into Heathrow any more do they?
I remember watching them on radar at Farnborough struggling to get above 3000ft abeam Fairoaks. Handovers of Farnborough inbounds from the south were often a bit high/late 'because it's stuck on top of a slow climbing Springbok' London Control would say.
I moved to a house just west of Fairoaks in 1995 so I was able to watch them from my back garden too; often saw spurts of fuel venting from the wingtip vents.
Then about 5 years ago (after I retired) it all changed and I saw they were using A340s instead; slightly better rate of climb (but not much).