What airplane maneuver amazed you the most?
 

This may be one of those "well, duh" situations for some of the really experienced FT'ers here, so take it with a grain of salt, if so. I've flown a fair amount, and somehow have never seen a large plane (737, 757, 767) back itself up so I assumed they couldn't. When they back away from the gates, it's a little tug car that pushes them back, right?

I was on one flight about a year ago that got put into the "penalty box" after pulling away from the gate because of some ground hold. I don't remember now what model the plane was, but one of the above, and I don't remember what airport either (I should have posted this when I had the details, sorry). I was listening to channel 9 (UA) and heard ground control tell our pilot to go pull up behind another large jet out of line and wait for further instruction. So we did.

Traffic was a mess that day and many planes were taking off for other destinations. Finally, we were told to pull around the guy in front of us and line up for departure. The captain commented that we were too close to the guy in front of us, so control asked him to move forward. He did, but couldn't seem to move up very far. In order to not lose our place in the departure line, we had to go NOW. So our pilot actually backed up in a curve and then pulled around the other guy. Almost a three point turn in reverse. That blew me away.

Anybody here witness something similar?

I've seen it a couple of times, using reverse thrust to leave the gate in dinky airports that didn't have a tug.

Are you sure weren't on an MD-80? The DC-9 series and its predecessors the MD-80's and '90's back up quite well. This used to be a common occurrence at MSP. A lot of our commercial aircraft are quite maneuverable in the air, but the average passenger doesn't appreciate when they do. :D

When I was learning to fly and had my first solo, I was most amazed at my clean landing! :D

Using thrust reversers to push from a gate was super common at DFW, land of the AA MD-80s.

I remember my husband flew with me, so that narrowed it down to most likely being IAD-SFO round trip. Sanity checking on ual.com shows that it could have been either a 757 or A320 (or A319, but less likely). Also pretty sure it was a 3-3 seat configuration, although that's muddier memory.

I definitely remember marvelling how he didn't clip any wing-tips with no outside guidance! We were way out in the middle of the field, nowhere near a gate where the crew could walk out and flag us.

I still think this is one of the most amazing airplane maneuvers I've seen with a large plane. A 707 doing a barrel roll...fast forward to 1:45 to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaA7kPfC5Hk

I have been told that, when the 707 was introduced (at the Paris Air Show), there was a lot of snickering and so forth about how the thing was too ungainly to do much of anything. So the pilot decided to buzz the crowd and do a barrel roll. It was all quite astonishing at the time and, again, so I'm told, completely unauthorized.

Can I count helicopter flights? :p

Probably not as cool as seeing a plane leave the gate with reverse thrust, but when I was a child, I remember seeing big birds land at Kai Tak! Seeing planes take sharp turns right before landing always seemed cool to me.

Bob Hoovers engines-out aerobatics in an Aero-Commander...:eek::eek::eek:

While I've pushed back on engines several times, the one move I'll remember was an approach into PIT about 10 years ago. I don't know if the captain was high on approach, or was expecting a go-around and got a late landing clearance or what. But we came in at a descent angle like we were on a dive bombing run. Even the FAs were looking at each other wondering what was going on. Our "flare" before landing felt like pulling up for a go-around, but it was just to get level. We landed without incident or a word from the Captain.

The airplane maneuver that amazes me the most is the service cart and a large passenger attempting to pass each other in the aisle. This formation maneuver is usually initiated by the passenger, it's exhilarating to watch. I cannot look away.

On a serious note, "powerbacks" used to be common practice with high mounted engine aircraft. Iirc, doing this in snowy conditions was implicated in the Air Florida disaster.

...landing safely. :D

It was actually in Seattle, where a major aviation conference had coincided with a small weekend air display where it was known many of the airline attendees would be on their free day, and the new 707 had been invited along. Boeing chief test pilot Tex Johnston did it, over Lake Washington, and came back the other way and did a second one. Of course, Tex was called straight to Boeing President Bill Allen's (who was there and saw it) office for 8.00 am Monday morning, where there was a short exchange of opinions.

Many years later, when retired, Tex related he had said it was only a 1g manoeuvre, and Bill Allen said "You know that, and I know that, but most people out there don't - so don't do it again".

I wonder how any of the Boeing main board nowadays even know what a 1g manoeuvre is ......