Oh God, don't get me started about talking about 727s. I flew 727s for ten years as well, ended up with a little over 7,000 hours in it.
Simply put, you could do things in the 727 that just could not be done in its rivals. I did get to fly a -200 with the full Valsan conversion, now with a light load that thing was a rocket. You did have to be very careful not to out climb the wing.
There are some sport teams, mostly professional basketball teams, that operate 727s here in the US today. I've been in a couple, they were the full Valsan conversion and had glass cockpits.
If won a huge lottery I would buy a corporate 727 to run around the world in.
Flew into Saint Thomas many times when the runway was 4600 feet with a 500 foot overrun. Could stop and turn of at mid field or just a little beyond, sometimes. The B-727-100 could stop at max landing weight in 1600 feet
and we were very light with a VREF Speed of 108 Kts.
A fabulous aircraft to say the least
Agree with all of the above, it was astonishing just how fast you could stop a 727. Even with flaps 30, now with flaps 40 in a -100 it was even more astonishing.
My only two complaints on the 727 is where they put the APU, I do understand why they placed it where it is, I just wished it was back in the tail. My other complaint is the main landing gear, I wish that were four tires per boogie rather than two, if Boeing had done that, there are a lot more airports that you could operate at that is now prohibited because of the weight foot print, which is about the highest of any airliner, especially the 200A. We had a regular RON in Phoenix and we had to park on metal plates at the FBO or we would sink into ramp.
I miss flying the 727 more than another aircraft.