Originally Posted by
a330pilotcanada
Good Evening Stilton, M-2 Dude and others.
I am having a nostalgia evening as 20 years ago today I had a flight in G-BOAC from CYYZ to “no-where”.
Actually, it was down to New York out over the ocean for around 30 minutes at FL 550 and Mach 2. For one in the “industry” it was a real treat to be able to have a flight in such an iconic aircraft.
Things I will always remember going out of “reheat” (a more elegant description then afterburner) after noise abatement from being pushed back into one’s seat to being momentarily weightless, the brilliance of the sky at FL 550, the cabin windows being hot at Mach 2 and seeing the gap between the flight engineers panel and the bulk head at Mach 2 due to the aircraft heating. I could go on about the engineering, observing the crew coordination from the cockpit visit (sadly pre-9/11) and there is a certain story about how our group sweet talked our way into the first-class lounge in YYZ and drained all the bubbly British Airways had in the fridge that day but…….
Reading the thread on this aircraft has been fascinating and thank you to all that has contributed to this wonderful story a sincere thank you.
I hope you will be interested in the following:- many years ago, when BA192 was a Concorde LHR-JFK, I asked if I could sit in the jump seat for take off. The captain agreed (maybe becuae I'm an engineer), and off we went. Pretty fun stuff. I was still up there when the reheat was re-engaged for the M 0.95 and up, and the captain said "we have a slight over temperature reading in engine #?, so I need to throttle back slightly" [it was almost a nervous tick I had noticed on this and previous flights that between reheat re-engagement and the final descent into JFK, the person flying pushed the throttles every few minutes - though omitting engine #? in this case]
Anyway the captain then says "never mind, we'll be in JFK 5 minutes early because of the "issue" - you can stay up for the whole flight if you can explain why".
After some serious cogitation, I sussed it out - any body else want a crack at it - and why wasn't an attractive option?