On Mar 11, 8:56*pm, "bumper" wrote:

Wave in a 500,000 Pound Aircraft

Gordo Boettger flies a MD-11 for Fedex

Gents,
Took off from SFO at 7 PM last night in the MD-11 headed for MEM. *
That's when we hit the harmonics.
The throttles would go to idle, nose pitch over, and the speed clacker was
going off due to overspeed. *

Pass on to others if you wish.

I wonder if Gordo can get his FOQA (Flight Ops Quality Assurance) or
ACARS data to substantiate his wave claims in his MD-11!

I used to test MD-11's, and had a wonderful time.

BTW, FOQA (pronounced FO-kwa) is "data loggers for airliners." At a
NASA Safety meeting back in '05, I admonished both NASA and the
airline industry for not keeping up with OLC using their FOQA data!
Such is life.

BTW, back in '01, Norm Howell (former C-17 test pilot, former
Tehachapi tug pilot, former X-48B pilot) established a C-17 altitude/
payload record by similarly cheating: he used the Sierra Wave to take
a ~500klb C-17 to about 44,000 feet...setting altitude records for
carrying a 40,000 kg (88,200 lb) payload. Next time I harass him,
I'll ask if he put in for the lennie pin.

-Pete
#309