Early birds on 707's
Reading those early memories of the first run of the 707's makes me realise how lucky I was to come in with the second wave (Again!) when most of the really nasty snags had been painfully and sometimes fatally ironed out. When we first flew as captains, Sabena was still using the system of flying two captains together until the newer one had gained experience. I vividly remember one such occasion when the left hand Capt. was landing at Kennedy and I was in the right. It had been raining and the end of the runway was approaching at a high rate of knots. There was a N.Y. Police car at the very end on the taxi track and I could see startled white faces as we hurtled down on them. The Capt was busy with the throttles and I cut the "anti skid "and put the spoilers lever out even though we were below 80 kts. We came to a shuddering (us, not the aircraft ) halt inches from the end of the runway but the Police Car had left us for the marshes beyond and the police, still in complete shock, were hauled out to be given changes of underwear all round. That was my best lesson never to land too far down a runway in a 707. The sticking power was not there.
Last edited by regle; 7th Apr 2010 at 15:38.