Joy ride
I certainly operated LHR - IAD when on VC10s.
I would have to look in my logbook to see whether it was only on the Super.
Chris
As I remember the Standard mtow was 142427kg and the Super 151953kg.
What useless things stick inones memory!!
I don't recall any gulf airfield being restrictive but that is probably because most sectors were not that long compared to, say, NBO -LHR.
Going east the aircraft probably stopped, by the latest SIN and the longest sector Westbound was to LHR.
We used, often, to stop in continental europe as the likes of LH, AZ et al. didn't operate to the gulf.
Likewise with NBO/EBB the a/c often operated via an intermediate point, or two,
to LHR (NBO - KRT - FFM - LHR was a long night).
The direct flights regularly required an en-route alternate with a inflight replanning to make it.
Although not WAT limited, some of the longer sectors could present challenges with fuel planning.
LHR - Barbados, Dulles and probably others were near the limit of full tanks range.
BDA and HNL had problems with alternate distance and island reserve was taken.
We used to have problems on the SIN - SYD routing and I can remember the relief when atc came up with "Sydney does not need an alternate".
To clarify we always used flap 22 for take off, which possibly gave the better tora weight.
I suspect the Super was climb segment limited which required flap 141/2 at 400ft.
I too remember the small margin for flap retraction out of NBO and we did it all on an analogue asi.
These young chaps with their digital readouts and trend arrows don't know what they're missing!!
I have often wondered how much better performance could have been obtained had separate flap and slat retractions been possible.
I understand it would have meant a totally different design philosophy.