AN24 question
 

I wonder if anyone can help? I am being quizzed by a (non aviation) author about the finer details of the AN24 for his forthcoming novel. General questions on how an aircraft flies have been easy enough to answer but now he's getting specific! Can anyone out there tell me the rotation speed for the AN24?

Thanks in advance, I have a feeling I'll be back!

Arrestahook

roughly
 

Maybe flight simmers can help here:
AN24
has a general description of procedures.
I hope it helps. I have no idea of how accurate this is but some of these guys are nuts about details.
Quick takeoff summary:

• Flaps to 15° (third position).
• Arm the brakes (?), turn propeller lock ON and raise the throttle briefly to 40%.
• Then raise power to 100% and release the brakes.
• Start rotation around 200 km/h.
• Take off should be at ~220-250 km/h (depending on the weight).
• Keep the pitch approximately 8-9° (max 10 deg).
• After take off retract the gear.
• Above 250 km/h and minimum 120m AGL raise the flaps.
• Aim for climb speed of 300 km/h.
• At about 400m AGL reduce power to 65%.

Can anyone comment of how far this is from the real thing?

As I've flown the An24 many years ago, the memory it's a bit dim.
The take-off it's somehow different from other planes I flew. The rotate it's a half rotate actually. Reaching the proper speed (don't remember which is ) you lift the nose wheel .You stop the rotation and keep the nose wheel in the air while still running on the rwy. The plane will lift off in this attitude and you have to fly it for a short while almost level ,to accelerate. After a few sec you pull again to resume climb.
The plane is a tough plane,you can land on grass runway ,no problem.MTOW was about 21T ,if I remember correct, but we did fly it with 24t ,no problem.
I think ,like many russian planes,it was underlimited from weight, speed,performance point of view.
We flew it at fl 290 ,although it was somehow dificult to climb there,very small ROC. It was a cargo flight ,though.
Very nice tp plane,especially for beginners.As we use to say, it could take a lot of abuse from the pilots.
Very nice wxr radar, a bit strange looking-like a submarine periscope. Good also for terrain navigation.After a while you learn the form of every city,and you can navigate with it.Also it had a system for drift calculation,using wxr radar.
Also nice 'FD' type of bars for the ILS approach, called PRIVOD 'if I'm not wrong. We did manual flying simulated zero visibility landings with that. It actually had curtains on the windshield, and the instructor pulled them on to simulate no visibility.
Nice trim wheel, we used it for smooth takeoffs....and manouvering.
Autopilot basic,but it did it's job ok.
Big cockpit,for 5 crew members.We fle with only 3 :2 pilots and a mech.
Big cargo hold.
Compared with the ATR it was a mighty beast.And it eat twice the fuel also:}
We landed it with ice on the plane 4-5 cm deapth in some areas... it has hot air deiceing system on the wings,and electrical on the blades.
Nice plane, I remember flying it with pleasure.

Thanks chaps for those very helpful (and interesting) replies - I'll pass them on to my author and hope he credits PPRUNE in his acknowledgements!:)