Skip forward to 1:50. Listen to this C5 spool up and start it's take off roll, rolling rolling rolling. Keep that C5 rolling, Rawhide! It still did not appear to have the speed. Fully loaded?

I wonder if waiting to drop the flaps the last 1/4 of runway would have provided any less air drag and could have gotten him to a faster airspeed quicker.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/RYVsotySupE[/youtube]

Makes you wonder if he lost an engine after V1. Either that or a grossly incorrect empty weight or fuel weight that gave bad takeoff numbers.

If you were to change flap settings on the takeoff roll, most aircraft would give a configuration warning while the flaps are in transit or when they don't match what's in the FMC. I can't comment on how the C-5 is set up in that regard.

Great video, thanks for sharing. Love the sound.
Sometimes you just gotta go.

Tj

Looks like a normal C-5 takeoff to me. Keep in mind, the C-5 is going a lot faster than it appears due to the size of the aircraft. We subconsciously estimate speed by how long the aircraft takes to go one aircraft length and the Galaxy is loooong. The first time I saw a C-5 on final from the air, I thought he was hovering!

I found a couple references that said the C-5 takeoff roll at max gross (about 850,000 lbs) is 8,400 feet and 5,000 feet at 650,000 lbs gross weight. Those numbers are almost certainly at sea level, standard day. MSSS is 7350 feet long at 2,000 feet MSL and it looks warm so the DA is higher than standard. He used all the runway, probably to get the speed to fly away if he lost an engine. Climb looks like the C-5s I've seen takeoff.

I'm sure the view from the cockpit was exciting!

For those unfamiliar with large aircraft operations I'll offer the following comments:

You don't just "wait until the last 1/4 of the runway and drop whatever flaps you think will work best". Every aspect of the takeoff is planned and programmed as accurately as possible prior to entering the runway. That includes at least temperature, pressure altitude, winds, runway slope, runway condition (wet,dry,slick,etc) and from this is derived the power setting, flap setting, and airspeeds V1,Vr, and V2 to be used. The military has (or did when I was there) different names for these but they represent the same things. It is not uncommon when at high gross weights for V1 (last speed to be able to stop on remaining runway) to be several knots below Vr (rotation speed), hence one may roll a fair amount farther down the runway before rotating (as this airplane did) before rotating but he is going pretty fast at that point and he is going to takeoff because he doesn't have enough runway left to stop and his calculations say that even if he has lost an engine, he can safely continue the takeoff.

I have done a few of these both in the military and civilian life and, yes, it does get your attention when you see the end of the runway from that close.

Someone will probably be able to state all this more accurately than I did but this should be sufficient to convey the basic concept.

It has already been explained here that large airplanes may appear to be going much slower than they actually are because of an optical illusion.

He didn't use all the runway.

This guy did.

I can just here him saying "In Russia, we use all runway".

[youtube]https://youtu.be/ThoZNxy2JZk[/youtube]

Mike C.

Thanks Mike, loved it. The vodka burner!

Larry