Anybody flying in a Tupolev ?

[Bryan]

Found this yesterday

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13286479

The crew did well to land the thing.

[Autocar Publicity]

A lack of parachutes probably concentrates the mind. Mind you, these days you probably need to know more about software than flying to be a pilot. Glad they made it down OK, but hope none of them plan to fly into Leeds-Bradford any time soon...

[52D]

Tups arent too bad considering, what really used to scare me was Mil helicopters.

[strang steel]

Those things are getting old now.

I used to work at a regional airport in the late 70s/early 80s and we used to get one a week from Varna in Bulgaria and less frequently from Moscow, so that is 30 years ago. They attracted interest, not only because they were probably rare 'cops' for the aircraft spotters, but also because as they accelerated along the runway the wing tips rose rather alarmingly in respect to the ground.

Heaven knows how much fatigue the wings endured during a months regular flying.

[Blink Bonny]

I feel rather glad that:

a/ I'm not in that thing.

b/ I'm unlikely to be beneath it.

What sort of a crosswind / turbulence combination would abe caused that?

[giner]

An acquaintance of mine, a pilot, thought how seemingly controlled the waddles were. He said he it didn't look like the pilot was chasing random control inputs, but rather they looked very smoothly controlled. Aileron, Rudder, Elevator working together. Then we found this: http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=122072

I'd rather have my feet on the ground/wheels on the rails.

[Boris]

Tupolev 154s used to fly regularly from Leeds Bradford to and from Bulgaria about 25 years ago
I had several trips on them,always went for the back seat as there was lloads of leg room and I've never heard of a plane flying backwards into a mountain

[Bryan]

But I used to fly backwards in a VC10.
Usually from Brize Norton.

[strang steel]

But I used to fly backwards in a VC10.
Usually from Brize Norton.

They were noisy buggers. I remember them taking off from Heathrow in the early 70s on long distance flights and we had to abandon conversations for at least a minute because, when the windows were open, trying to hear anyone talk was pointless.

[Postman Prat]

I flew backwards in a Britannia a couple of times. A bit strange thundering down the runway at Gibraltar knowing that you were in for an early bath if the Crab (RAF) crew got it wrong!