I have departed (not laterally) from Gib's 6000ft runway in a Bucc at 52K AUW at a temp of +30C. The calculated TOD with 15-10-10 Unblown was 6100ft and the TOD Blown with 30-20-20 selected was 5900ft - not a happy prospect with the Med at both ends!
To give ourselves the max TOD available we virtually backed onto the orange & black chequerboard and asked the local controller to ensure that the overshoot on the westerly heading was clear of boats before we released the brakes. Given the 'all clear' and an updated OAT of +32, with full chat selected, we released the brakes and at 5900ft exactly the Bucc lifted almost vertically to about 10 ft and stayed there as we continued to accelerate and climb slowly before forcing a left hander to avoid Spanish Airspace (them were the days).
Oh sh*t! Said my man up front (sounded like eject at first but my experience told me that it wasn't) as he saw the boats in the overshoot - yahoo, cried I as I looked over my left shoulder in the turn and saw the Spanish fishermen swimming away from their upturned dinghy!
So, why do I tell you this tale, just to prove that the Bucc could do many things at high AUWs but I have to say that the prospect of going off a cat at more than 62K with 19K of fuel and an internal weapons load was an adventure that I am grateful I never had to endure.
A certain ex Groupie (sic. with a passion for flying )
That individual relates an excellent tale in his book of the night take-off that he and I
didn't do at Honington in the early 70s when we (through no fault of our own - no nose light on the Bucc in those days, an inky-poo nite and the fire section had left large tripods under the approach cable to ease their task of running the gromits in and out) inadvertantly took the approach cable with our nose wheel and ended up at full power in the largest rearwards pointing catapult in the world!
'Em really were the days!
Foldie
