Originally Posted by
condor17
Anyone still around with stretch DC8 -63 or so experience ..?
They can probably tell it as it was ... 2 stage rotation etc ..
And , do the bendy bus types have a squashable cake can under the rear fuselage ? A' La 767-300 etc .
rgds condor
Yep pretty much two stage rotation, the horizon had a mark at 8 degrees. The DC8-63 had two takeoff flap settings, 12 and 23. At 12 degrees and high gross weights it really did not want to fly at 8 degrees so you had to “milk” it into the air as the struts extended with a rapidly approaching runway end. And bring it up to 15 degrees once off the runway. It did have a crushable tailskid cartridge which one Captain I flew with tested. Happy days.