I was just curious about how often the nose door on the 744F is actually used? I mean is it fairly standard for them to crank that thing open to load the plane prior to every flight, or do they primarily use the side door for normal cargo and save the nose for oversized loads? Just curious.Andrew

only for oversized loads

The rear hold has greater height however, due to the floor of the upper deck being at a lower level. This is the reason for the shorter 'hump' of the upper deck to increase the volume of the hold :)

So Alastair,That means the nose really should've been put in the rear for best loading and space efficiency? ;-)Cheers,

Seems they've eventually got it right with the LCF :-lol

So does this mean that the nose door is used only rarely by cariers like Polar and Cargolux? Or are oversized loads themselves relativley common? I know this sounds like a strange line of questioning, but I am just trying to get an idea of how often it is used in real world operations.Andrew