Bert and D7, Hi.
Performance? Bert, do you remember a V2 cut at SPL at 220,000lbs TOW on 01L on a Sunday afternoon? We were legal, just, 11000lbs below MTOW. I remember a long pause before Tower asked "er, HeavyLift 501, are you in trouble?". Apart from the sweat factor, (it was 30deg C and there was no cooling on the flight deck before about 5000ft) , I had the pucker factor! (You were RHS TRE and I was LHS).
For real, departing Saigon in '80, 10wet, 30deg C, we unstuck with no runway left at V2+10kts, (just), missed a 30ft tree about a mile later, and it took 1.15hrs to make 10,000ft!!! (normal was 45mins to 12,000ft). We had a load check in SIN after landing and we had taken-off at about 250,000lbs (about 10 tonnes over max). The litre of amber never tasted better!
But she is a delight to fly and I don't know anyone from HLA days who didn't enjoy the life.....