Ever leave the gate on reverse thrust?
 

The year was about 1987. I don't remember the airport.

I think the aircraft was a 737-200; it had the old cigar-shaped engines with the thrust reversers like this http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...t_reverser.jpg

For whatever reason, they must not have had a tug. We backed out of our gate on reverse thrust.

Noisy and cool.

How common was this practice...I only experienced it once although I've never been a road warrior type.

Yeah, I was on a DC-9/ MD 80 in DFW about 10 years ago when the Capt. rocked the A/c forward and then blasted us backwards with reverse thrust.
Not a comforting thing for the pax!

They finally figured out that between discomfort for the pax and FOD ingestion in the engines, t wasn't such a good idea.

Can't easily post the links but there are some videos of powerbacks on YouTube.

I personally haven't experience it before. To read up on the topic more, I went to the ever-trusty Google and actually ran into this thread from many years ago, which has experiences from other FTers: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...e-anymore.html :)

An Engineering Standpoint on the Issue
 

In all my years of flying even on some of the older aircraft (dc9, dc10, l1011) i have never seen such a phenomena

It was common practice for a short time, but mostly limited to aircraft with tail-mounted engines. The move could only be done at certain airports because the taxiway or ramp behind the plane had to be unobstructed. I never did it at ORD, for example, but it was common practice at OMA.

Eastern Airlines used to do this often with their 727s in ATL. Maybe it was believed to be cheaper than paying for extra unionized (IAM) ground personnel in an age of relatively cheap fuel.

Reverse thrust at the gate was one of the causes of the Air Florida crash at DCA in 1982 -- in that case, they had a tug that was slipping, and tried to use the engines to help back away, eventually getting a tug with chains when that failed. Unfortunately, the snow and ice sucked into the engines resulted in false readings from the engine power probes.

I'm sure it's perfectly safe with tail mounted engines and perhaps some wing mounted ones in the right conditions, but I suspect there are significant restrictions on when and how it's used now.

I may be wrong, but I think only the MD series of aircraft are really capable of doing this. It may be possible in theory though for any jet aircraft with reverse thrust can do it..

I've had this a few times, I believe all on Mexicana 727 in Mexico City.

IIRC, once as a pax on either AA or CO back in the '80s.

As a mechanic; been involved in a couple for various reasons. Generally during overnight hours, and ramp service has taken the pushback equipment elsewhere on the concourse.

From experience, doing a powerback is a tricky operation (and can be a tad hair-raising) due to not being able to see anything that might get in the way, and the possibility of a tail stand when applying the brakes while rolling backwards (tip: completely close the T/Rs before lightly tapping the brakes).

Here's a video. Plenty more in related videos http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop...kA0xr96Y&gl=CA

Once and once only. It was a Continental flight about 8 years ago.

The C-17 does an impressive job with pushing back on its own power.

I thought the proceudre was to apply forward thrust and get the a/c rolling forward before applying brakes. My only experience I can remember is AA MD-80s as DFW.