Dora-9 I never flew with him but I have plenty of stories in the memory bank.
This post has led me to dig up my old performance notes because this flap 25 thing has me intrigued. On a ISA day, nil wind, sea level ( all the usual 50 ft height 1.67 buffer and reverse not considered) flap 30 landing on the 727 is 1700m and flap 40 is 1400m. Flap 25 is an extra 300m to the flap 40 figure. So 2000m compared to 1400m with flap 40. I suppose in America with nice long runways that is fine, but some extra for no good reason. The other problem with the 727 was the high 'footprint' with a relatively high ACN number. We were eventually banned from Hamilton Island because we were damaging the runway ends doing a u-turn.
In India they have modified A320's with four wheel trucks so they can get into their low strength fields. The Russian TU154 (their 727 category aeroplane) also had four wheels per leg. I wonder why Boeing never went down this path. A previous poster mentioned the nose wheel brakes. My notes show a weight penalty of 2,000kg if they were unserviceable. A magic aeroplane built like a brick outhouse, but at 5,000kg per hour fuel burn with 158 pax (Ansett configuration 158 plus 9 crew) doomed by the bean counters as a gas gurgler.