Originally Posted by
Kenny
Two things..
Firstly the comment about never trying to fly under a flock of water fowl because their natural instinct is to dive away, is spot on.
Secondly, I’ve flown that departure out of LGA numerous times and in my personal opinion, when you consider where he hit the birds, there was simply nowhere else to put the aircraft given the loss of power. JFK, EWR and TEB or even turning back to LGA were all out of the question. It was the only long and flat space in one of the most densely packed cities in NA.
At the end of the day, he made a decision and everyone walked away. Learn what you can from it and hope you’re never in the same situation.
Fully agree. Comparing LGA to EWR and JFK is like comparing YMMB to YMML or LCY to LHR. Pointless and ill-informed.
In that same pointless and ill-informed vein, as a highly experienced 747 driver for 36 years I wonder how much extra climb capability he would have been accustomed to having at his disposal one minute after takeoff? An unplanned increased rate of climb would almost certainly not have been available on the Classic when fully loaded, and I doubt he ever flew one of those out of LGA.