Happy New Year to all.
Just about caught up with this thread following my short break and surprised at some of the recent posts. Despite the generally positive comments regarding the Trident there are a number of posts during the past two weeks which seem to indicate that Trident's 'Gripper' nickname was extremely apt, almost to the point that the aircraft was inherently dangerous in certain load configurations with hot/short runway complications.
As a passenger (thats what we used to be called before the locost airlines detroyed the mystique of flying and the mutual respect between crew and their charges !!) I never really noticed a lack of climb performance (and I have departed TLV on the 0725), but then I guess only you guys in the front would have known the truth. However in the mid to late 70's I lived on the northern edge of Newcastle about 1 mile due south of the runway and I do clearly remember being amazed at the initial climb out performance of the (then) new Boeing 737s that had entered BA service, when compared to Tridents or 1-11s.