Md-80 "Mad Dog"

["GO AROUND"]

I thought it was cause all the male AA FA's thought it was a "sssssuuperrrrr" airplane?



It's hard to get the lisp right in text.

 

[ColKurtz]

And then towards the end, UAL's 737-200s were "Thunder Guppies", 737-300/500s were "Guppies", and 737-800s were "Super Guppies."

737-300/500s were called Yuppy Guppies.

The Col.

 

[Gorilla]

I loved the old ORD taxiways. Even on a slow day, the Ground guys talked rapid-fire, and would pile on maybe 5 or 6 taxi instructions one after another. As a new-hire, I'd be trying to get the taxi clearance, and I'd miss 80% of it and not understand the remaining 20%. The Captain would see my wide, confused eyeballs and say "I've got it, no biggie."

I also had total pity for the foreign carriers, like LOT or Air France, who had to take those clearances in what for them was a foreign language.

 

[Otto Coarsen]

Is there talk at AA of adding winglets and converting the old JT8D's to the 717 Rolls engines? There has been light talk and speculation on this at Allegiant. I've heard figures in the realm of 30% fuel savings. The -80 is a tank; another GREAT Mcdonnell Douglas airplane. It's only downfall IMO is the gas guzzling.

 

[PHX767]

Is there talk at AA of adding winglets and converting the old JT8D's to the 717 Rolls engines? There has been light talk and speculation on this at Allegiant. I've heard figures in the realm of 30% fuel savings. The -80 is a tank; another GREAT Mcdonnell Douglas airplane. It's only downfall IMO is the gas guzzling.

Winglets I could see... re engine - wow! That would be a huge capital investment.

It is a good old bird. When I came back from furlough (the first time) I was assigned to the 80 and didn't like it at first. It's a really busy cockpit for a guy that was raised on 757's. After a few months I really started to appreciate the old girl. And talk about reliable - in my 700 hrs or so on the 80, I only had one flight canx for maint.

Just don't try and climb to optimum altitude in v/s mode without paying close attention to your airspeed!

 

[taters]

Just don't try and climb to optimum altitude in v/s mode without paying close attention to your airspeed!

You dont climb in "perf "mode? , do any of those Stupid 80's at AA still have the old Omega ONS-1 systems in them , or are they all pretty much FMS upgraded??.

Thanks,
Les A.

 

[CitationLover]

just bring back the MD94 with the GE UDF engines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric_GE-36

 

[aa73]

You dont climb in "perf "mode? , do any of those Stupid 80's at AA still have the old Omega ONS-1 systems in them , or are they all pretty much FMS upgraded??.

Thanks,
Les A.

Climbing in PERF sucks! Talk about hunting for pitch attitude. And then, you gotta worry about if it drops out of perf, it reverts to v/s (if in a climb or descent). Finally, at cruise instead of maintaining level flight it climbs/descends to maintain a constant Mach. It may improve fuel efficiency, but I've seen it almost 200ft high/low at times. In this day and age of RVSM that just makes me uncomfortable.

All of our native, and some older TWA MD80s have the Honewywell GFMS installed. The newest 39 TWA birds have dual FMS.

Agreed, the -80 is a fine machine that has earned my respect over the years. 3500+ hrs and maybe two or three CNX flights for maintenance.

 

[aa73]

Is there talk at AA of adding winglets and converting the old JT8D's to the 717 Rolls engines? There has been light talk and speculation on this at Allegiant. I've heard figures in the realm of 30% fuel savings. The -80 is a tank; another GREAT Mcdonnell Douglas airplane. It's only downfall IMO is the gas guzzling.

There was talk for awhile with the BMW/Rolls retrofit, and they almost signed a deal for 100 aircraft to be retrofitted, but then that fell through. Our highly paid bonus-expecting management concluded that the ROI wasn't justifiable.

All of our 737s will have winglets installed, and 20 of our 757s as well.

 

[CitationLover]

i had heard AA stalls an 80 once a month in cruise and that the feds were considering putting a FL290 limit on them.

this is from an AA pilot, albeit a 767 CA.

think of it this way aa73.....you're one or a couple number away from joining paisano at our lovely company. at least you won't worry about performance in the "scope" jet (my shout out to the MIA 738 CA who loves me in ATL with that one.....he did not get my "we're doing our best Cpt. Himmler" joke)........

fyi your lucky you got away with one beer!

 

[aa73]

i had heard AA stalls an 80 once a month in cruise and that the feds were considering putting a FL290 limit on them.

this is from an AA pilot, albeit a 767 CA.

Sounds far fetched to me. I think all -80 operators have experienced high alt buffet once in a while.

Spirit had a few.... DL had a few... happens to the best of us -80 operators. The fact remains that the -80 has a crappy altitude wing and if you're not careful, it could happen.

 

[aa73]

think of it this way aa73.....you're one or a couple number away from joining paisano at our lovely company. at least you won't worry about performance in the "scope" jet (my shout out to the MIA 738 CA who loves me in ATL with that one.....he did not get my "we're doing our best Cpt. Himmler" joke)........

fyi your lucky you got away with one beer!

LOL... tell Paisan "How you doin" (with a NY accent) for me!

P.S> yes I was danged lucky... and it was three beers, not one!

 

[AirBP]

How does an MD -8x look like a mad dog??

Where do people come up with this stuff??

The MD80 seems to have lots of nick names, some airline specific: NWA called theirs "Limos" (streached DC-9) AA called them "Slicks" or "Super Snakes", various other nicknames are "Long-Beach sewer pipe" and "Long Beach Death Tube" both alluding to the place of manufacture and borrowing from the Fairchild Metro's Texas Death-Tube and San Antonio sewer pipe nicknames. Mad Dog has stuck the most and is even used by ATC on occasion.