Saw this big bird fly over my house with what I would assume was a Lear Jet off it’s starboard side, sticking nice and tight. Grabbed the scanner and heard some clips of it at VFR atltitudes, then gets cleared from 17.5 to the FLs and off towards ‘home’. Never heard the lear call in but I had sketchy reception.
Is this a new addition to the fleet? y other info on ths flight? Looks like it did not originate from VCV unless VFR, and no FF?
Look at the flight number. Most of the major scheduled airlines (Continental being an exception) use flights in the 9xxx series as ferry, maintenance, or charter flights. Guess you could had air-to-air photography to this category.
This was one of the many training flights they have been doing getting the pilots ready for service, did a few touch and goes at JAX.
Yes, they are. First time I saw a 777 in person I couldn’t believe how big the engines really are. Hopefully Wikipedia is right on this, but it says the engines have an overall diameter of 11 feet, 2 inches. The width of the fuselage of a Boeing 737 is 12 feet 4 inches so this engine is almost as wide as the entire fuselage on a 737.
We are excited to have her in our fleet. Last weekend they had a big open house up in MEM to welcome her to the company. There is a really cool pic. of her doing a fly by, with her sister a/c (MDD, Airbus(s) and feeders)in the foreground during a static display. She enters rev service in Dec. prob intime for “Peak season”. Hope she comes to see us…but won’t hold my breath 8)
Nope. They are getting 15 777F’s instead of 10 A380F’s because Airbus either couldn’t produce them quick enough or the decided to drop the program after UPS canceled their order for the A380F
Some time ago in the 80’s we had a triple flyby in Fresno with a FedEx DC10, 727 and a Falcon 20 being photographed by Clay’s Lear. They flew over the runway then headed out over the snow capped Sierra’s. WHAT A SIGHT IT WAS!!!
I was just reading a magazine article about the new Fedex hangar being built in MEM for the 777. According to the article Fedex opted for the 777 over the A380 due to range. The 777 can do Asia to MEM non stop, the A380 would need a fuel stop.
I read that they like shooting approaches at Amarillo, big long fairly deserted runway. They have to get the check airman pilots all qualified on the 777 before regular flights begin, and this can only happen flying the real thing. The normal line pilots can check out in the sim and fly the airplane for the first time on a revenue flight, but need a check airman already qualified to fly with them.
