411A Tony has no obligation to answer to any one on this forum, including your exalted self. Anyway, if you had your way he'd be answering to his chief pilot right now!. .Tinkering with CI can alter max altitude, so can altering the ceiling rate of climb, which is pretty obvious. Neither of these methods compromise safety margins built in by the manufacturer or operator (unless you reduce CRoC). Messing with the C of G and buffet margins does. If the chief pilot of Tony's airline didn't probe the captain in detail with regard to his actions then he needs HIS arse kicked or the regulators called in.. .Asking for weights and launch C of G etc so we can all run off to our B747-400 manuals is pointless. If the aircraft was comfortably inside the envelope Tony wouldn't have made his post. It wasn't & he did, simple really.. .As someone said before; sticking a large aircraft with 400 trusting souls on board on the margins of the envelope simply isn't clever. What we think is probably less relevant than what the guy trying to get some sleep in 54G thinks. Because when I'M that guy I know what I think.. . <img src="smile.gif" border="0">