the 757's future at AA

[Mach85ER]

It was just as bad in the DC-8...

 
 
DC-8 with "straight pipe" original turbojets? Hot day in MIA with an overloaded beat up freighter departing runway 9, good simulation of a 757 in LPB.
 
Wish I made a video of one of those crawling for altitude over the employee lot. With the old noise sensitive car alarms, it was hilarious to hear 3000 alarms blaring a once. The noise was deafening. New alarms seem less sensitive, not as entertaining
 

And that's with a very light load of fuel, right?   Don't the LPB flights still stop in VVI for fuel before returning to MIA?
 
 

 
 
Yes. Pax count may have been restricted also but I forget. VVI is something like 45 minutes away, just enough fuel to do that. VVI field elevation is low too. Crew flies MIA-LPB-VVI then RON. They tried RON LPB on a schedule, but altitude sickness at hotel was a problem even with a bedside O2 bottle.

 

[eolesen]

They tried RON LPB on a schedule, but altitude sickness at hotel was a problem even with a bedside O2 bottle.

Braniff used to overnight crews in LPB, and supposedly required the originating crew to go on O2 bottles an hour before departure. Doing a walkaround while slightly hypoxic can lead to bad things happening....

 

[LD3]

 
 
DC-8 with "straight pipe" original turbojets?

That brings back memories...We used to load the hell out of those airplanes with racks of engines from GM Tonawanda going to a crap load of assembly plants....

 

[1AA]

And that's with a very light load of fuel, right?   Don't the LPB flights still stop in VVI for fuel before returning to MIA?
 
Good thing the youngest 757s (the 20 configured with angled-flat J seats) are only about 11-14 years old, so they've got plenty of life left in them.   

May have plenty of life but there is a reason why AA is not painting any 757's in new colors.

 

[Freighterguynow]

Current plan is 50 active through 2018.

Count is shown at 93 today.

 

[eolesen]

They've had a good run. The first deliveries started in 1990, deliveries continued fairly steadily thru 2002 aside from an 25 month gap between 1996/1998.

After 25 years of service, it's time to let them go while there's still some interest in freighter conversions...

 

[Bloodhound]

 
>8400 is probably a 767 option that AA didn't purchase.
 
After flying the 757 in there many times, I'm not sure that I'd want to experience the 767 into there. Even the well performing 757 with plenty of power elsewhere resembles a ground loving pig there. Raise the nose on rotation everywhere but LPB, it leaps into the air. At LPB? It drives along on the mains with the nose in the air for what seems to be a mile until finally breaking ground around 225 MPH (statue).

One of the extremely rare instances in aviation where altitude is NOT your friend!!!

 

[LD3]

They've had a good run. The first deliveries started in 1990, deliveries continued fairly steadily thru 2002 aside from an 25 month gap between 1996/1998.

After 25 years of service, it's time to let them go while there's still some interest in freighter conversions...

Isn't or wasn't FedEx on a buying spree?

 

[eolesen]

For the right price, FDX was buying them up to retire the 727 fleet (which they did late last year).

They seem to have cubed out, aside from a few yet to be delivered shells from UA.