I have already made my contribution to this subject and I have no wish to make any further comment (for now) on the main topic but I am very interested in the comment made recently that a B747-400 only uses 1200 kgs of fuel making a visual circuit.
Can anyone out there who regularly makes visual circuits in real B747-400s (not the simulator) confirm this figure?
Having once had to make a go-around at JFK in a DC-10 it took 4000 kgs to get back on the ground.
Indeed, the taxi fuel allowed on the loadsheet of the DC-10 just to get to the threshold was normally getting on for 950 kgs (1300 kgs at JFK and ORD) so the notion of doing a G/A, PRGU, leaving the slats out, flaps for circuit, down wind, gear down etc etc and only burning 1200 kgs leaves me full of huge admiration for the efficiency of Mr Rolls Royce's engines.
I would also be interested to know when (if ever) the crew involved actually did a quick visual circuit in the real aeroplane.
Before you start firing back, I DO spend a lot of my time flying visual circuits in the real aeroplane for we do not have a zero-time simulator.