Stupid Guest Tricks

BRWombat wrote:My only time to see one live was when I was flying out of Dulles after the wedding of a friend in Maryland -- my gate happened to be right next to the Concorde's. Man, it seemed tiny next to other jets, like a needle with huge wings. But it took off just before they called my flight for boarding, and the whole building shook when it lit those afterburners, even though it was way off at the end of the runway.

When the Concorde made it's one and only visit to LAX, I was there, about a mile or so east of the runway, taking sound level measurements. These would have been "best case" conditions due to the plane being empty, and one presumes one of the best pilots available in the left seat.

What we found was that while the noise levels weren't much worse than a 727, the wake turbulence was bad enough to pick up one-inch rocks from the unpaved parking area and flip them into the air!

Glad they didn't make my town a regular stop.

Yikes!

One of my favorite Concorde stories, from a documentary, involving their last flights. The planes would heat up enough at altitude and cruising speed that they expand quite a bit, with expansion gaps appearing between columns of equipment in the cockpit (and I'm sure elsewhere). On the last flights, many of the BA pilots took off their pilots' caps with the Concorde insignia and stuck them into these gaps before descent. By the time they were on the ground -- permanently -- the gaps had closed and their caps were forever locked in, now part of the plane. I thought it was an appropriate and bittersweet tribute to the end of an era.

I've had three "run-ins" with Concordes. The flying Club I belonged to was based at IAD (Dulles International Airport).

The first is when they had some minor problem and thew Concorde was pulled into the FBO hanger. It was interesting in that both the nose and tail stuck out. Anyway, we had to walk through the hanger to get to the ramp, and so we wandered around underneath (and kicked the tires) of the Concorde when it was sitting there.

I had a time when I was going to make an intersection takeoff on 1R and was told to hold for the Concorde landing. Unlike other aircraft (such as a 747) it was not able to use any of the high-speed taxiways, but had to go all the way to the North end of the runway to turn off.

At that time, as it passed me, I noticed that it actually had a tailwheel. I found this was because the landing and departure angle of attack was so high that it was needed to keep the bottom of the aircraft from scraping on the runway.

The third time was was I was going to be making an intersection takeoff on 19R and, while doing the runup, noticed a Concorde taxiing Northbound behind me. Just after I got my takeoff clearance and was starting to roll onto the runway for departure, the Concorde announced it was in position for departure. ATC told him to hold and asked me (since I was already on my takeoff roll) to please clear from the runway heading as soon as possible after takeoff and not wait for the normal 800 feet AGL. I acknowledged, and at about 100 feet turned to the right and reported; at that time ATC gave the Concorde takeoff clearance.

I had to see it, so here is a picture for you all


From http://www.concordesst.com

LOL I've heard the "Disney promotes witchcraft" thing before but not like this. She must've HATED the Chernabog scene :D:

Manetoys wrote:LOL I've heard the "Disney promotes witchcraft" thing before but not like this. She must've HATED the Chernabog scene :D:

That's assuming she got that far before walking away. ;)