A Slideshow...

[petermcleland]

Now that NASA TV has gone HD I was able to make a slideshow of some of the procedings. My show starts AFTER the astronauts have been strapped in so there will be no pictures of them.

The first half of the show is dedicated to the "Close Out Crew" operating in the White Room. Then the launch. The final eight shots are from camera replays.

The slideshow can be seen here:-

http://www.petermcleland.com/Last

The pictures appear in your browser and are in 16:9 wide screen format. They are best viewed in "Full Screen" mode (IE with F11 and Firefox with View>Full Screen)
In the group of Icons at bottom centre, click the left one once to set SlideShow and then the Play icon to run, pause or stop it. The slideshow is outside the Forum so the forum screenshot size rules are not applicable...But the pictures will automatically adjust to suit your screen size

[davidjones]

Peter - that is a great slideshow; IMHO standing down the shuttle with no replacement in sight is a foolish move on the part of our so-called government.

On another subject, I believe you did flight test on the Trident? Did that plane lack a certain measure of low speed rudder authority? I ask because most takeoffs I experienced in one involved a sort of serpentine movement down the runway that I never experienced in other aircraft of the time.

DJ

[petermcleland]

Peter - that is a great slideshow; IMHO standing down the shuttle with no replacement in sight is a foolish move on the part of our so-called government.

On another subject, I believe you did flight test on the Trident? Did that plane lack a certain measure of low speed rudder authority? I ask because most takeoffs I experienced in one involved a sort of serpentine movement down the runway that I never experienced in other aircraft of the time.

DJ

No David, the Trident had excellent low speed rudder authority...The nosewheel steering was used for the very first part of the take-off roll and then from about 60 knots when the rudder was fully efficient the pilot took his hand off the tiller and just used his feet to keep straight. The maximum permitted crosswind component for the take-off was less by a few knots with the crosswind from the left than with the crosswind from the right...This was due to the fact that the nosewheel was not in the middle but was quite a bit left of the middle of the aircraft and the rudder trim was only allowed to be central for take-off. This meant that the aircraft was out of trim on the take-off until retrimmed or the gear was up. From a hazy memory the max crosswind component for take-off with crosswind from left was 27 knots and from the right 30 knots.

BTW I was a Captain on Tridents for eleven years.

[davidjones]

I was fortunate enough to have a job in the eighties that required me to spend a week or so in Brussels every month. I was very fond of British Air so would fly into London on their 747's and thence to Brussels on whatever was on the route that week - most frequently a 737-200 but often a Trident. I suspect they were being phased out over those years. Lovely aircraft, although I found my introduction to the inflight, very English, breakfast a bit of a shock. It was the last plane that I've flown on that had rearward facing seats... At any rate, I appreciate the input.

Thanks,
DJ