[21JAN17] PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II - More Release Info

[KORDATC 80]

It does have a distinctive, almost sureal presence to it. I remember my first time seeing one. I think I was 5 years old. My Dad had taken me to O'hare for the day to watch planes. This was in the late 90s before 9/11, but we were allowed to walk through the terminals no problem even though we didn't have a ticket. We were however told that we had to remain in the domestic terminals (1-3). I remember this angering me as I had just gotten a toy Japan Airlines 747 and was obsessed with Virgin Atlantic at the time. I wanted to see them in person and was under the impression at that young age that the only place I could see the "big" planes was the international terminal. So my Dad and I took the terminal transit rail over to terminal 2 and then terminal 1. Little did I know that United and it's partners use terminal 1 for their International departures. So after seeing endless 727s, we walked towards the end of concourse B. That's when I saw my first 747 in person. I remember it was Lufthansa. I can't remember what model it was, but it seems to me it was a 747-200. Looking up at the cockpit windows from the terminal is an image that has stuck with me for all these years. I'll never forget that.

[Jeffg817 25]

Any chance on getting the manuals before release? Just the Part 1 Introduction would be great.

 

JeffG

[77west 139]

 

 

Looking up at the cockpit windows from the terminal is an image that has stuck with me for all these years. I'll never forget that.

My first time seeing one up close was when I was boarding another flight and had to walk right past a parked South African Airways -200B, in those days you could see the cockpit windows peeking over the top of the terminal building from the car park, so I was even more amazed to go past the nose gear so close to get to our plane. Majestic and somewhat scary as well.

[Patco Lch 1,459]

The first 747 I saw was a  Pan Am Clipper (I think it was the Clipper Donald Mckay, I have an old photo buried some where) on Tan San Nhut Airbase in Viet Nam in 1972. I was an Army tower controller on a near by heliport( Hotel 3). I was sight seeing with another troop named Fran Miller. We were allowed to go on board and see the passenger cabin. Didn't get to ride one home though. Made that trip February the following year on an Airlift International DC-8 after cease fire .

[Wolfrick 9]

My first time seeing a 747 live, well my high school was right under the landing path of San Diego international (KSAN). the wheels were maybe 500 ft above us, just before the drop in the hill to the displaced threshold. At the time BA would fly the beautiful 400 from London to San Diego then a short hop to Phoenix Sky Harbor then back to London. So every day while walking from 5th to 6th period we would see the queen fly right over looking like it was about to reach out and run us over with the mains. then 9/11 hit and BA stopped that route. I hear that its back sorta, but I've not seen the queen yet. and i live right next to the flight path at the point in the decent where the gear comes down! my house is great for "bird watching". 

[77west 139]

I think this sums it up quite well:

 

[Alan_A 1,650]

 

 

I think this sums it up quite well:

 

It absolutely does.

[Werner747 107]

The first time I ever saw a 747 in person was roughly 20 year ago - we were at the old Durban airport (FADN), about to board a 737 to Cape Town (FACT), when , lo and behold, an SAA 747-400 taxied slowly up to the terminal building.   Don't know where it came from at the time, but the sheer size of it made me feel like an ant.   At that time I wasn't really into flying or had even heard of flightsim, however, that encounter made a lasting impression on me.   I really did feel like the little girl in that stamp hahahaha.   The only difference is I was on the ground floor of the terminal so was on ground level looking up at it - was a little terrifying at that time!   I felt a little like Legolas in the 2nd LOR films when he said "unless my eyes are cheated by some spell..."  I didn't understand how that massive city block can get up and stay up!

 

Regards

[77west 139]

 

 

I really did feel like the little girl in that stamp hahahaha.   The only difference is I was on the ground floor of the terminal so was on ground level looking up at it - was a little terrifying at that time!

One of my colleagues flew on an Air NZ 744 just before they retired, and boarded via stairs, his 8 year old started crying when they walked up to the 747. Apparently was overwhelmed. The interesting thing is his dad said it was a bit scary as well, standing next to the nose of such a monster. I visited the Auckland museum of transport and technology on the weekend and they had an old Solent flying boat, and I must say even that struck me awe as to the sheer size, exaggerated when inside a giant hangar.

[Paul K 1,281]

I think this sums it up quite well:

 

 

Indeed it does. Nice find. :smile:

[77west 139]

 

 

Indeed it does. Nice find.

I remember seeing that pic, I think, on a National Geographic cover or advert years ago, and it has always stuck with me as an iconic representation of what the 747 stands for; wonder, the wonder of flight, the wonder of travel to far-away places, the wonder of freedom to explore the world. And above all, the wonder of what we as a species have achieved.

[swiesma 625]

It is really nice to read all your stories.

So here is mine:

 

I was 15 years old (20 years ago) and we were on a trip to visit friends of my grandparents, they live in Windsor, Ontario.

So me and my grandparents (I was their translator ;-) ) flew from Munich to Heathrow with BA.

In Heathrow we were upgraded (I cannot remember why) to sit in the upper deck. It was Business Class as far as I remember? The bird was a 747-200 I think. Short upper deck, no winglets...

That was a hell of a flight to Detroit Wayne County.

 

The way back was the same, but not in the upper deck :-(

 

I really love this bird.

[Werner747 107]

In the eighties, shortly after the demise of the Helderberg (ZS-SAS) my dad had to start traveling from Windhoek (today in the independent Namibia), to Johannesburg quite often for work related courses.

 

Now, during this time, in the apartheid era, SAA was not allowed to fly over African states to Europe and had to fly around the horn of Africa or around the other side depending on where they were going and it was common place for B747-200 flights to stop over at Luanda (FNLU) or J. G. Strydom (today named Husea Kotako Intl - FYWH), to refuel and then head on to the European destinations.

 

This meant that my dad constantly caught the Johannesburg-Windhoek flights, and very often found himself on one of the 742's.   Many a times there were a handful of people on there (he recalls a flight where only 7 people apart from him was on the aircraft bound for FYWH) - in that particular incident, a night flight with a thunderstorm that was closing in, he recalls the aircraft accelerating, and it felt to him as if the aircraft started a turnout the moment the wheels left the ground, and he though, yep, tonight I am buying it, this wing is going to stick into the ground, but when he looked out the window, the aircraft had already gained a significant amount of altitude.

 

I thought this was quite funny and told him look, with almost no load and a very light fuel load, that thing would have been like a rocket ship of that runway, even 5558' MSL.  

 

SAA also operated six 747SP's, which, when the sanctions were lifted, had little more use internationally in a sense and started flying Johannesburg - Cape Town from time to time, and I would have LOVED to have been on one of those, immediately climbing up to 42 000 feet and cruising with around 84% N1 and easily holding Mach 0.88!   This I saw on the JustPlanes video of the SAA 747SP.  

 

So in our family, my dad is the only one who flew the 747 and did so relatively often despite it having been only domestically lol.

 

Regards

[77west 139]

 

 

So in our family, my dad is the only one who flew the 747 and did so relatively often despite it having been only domestically lol.

Ahh the good old 747-SP44 with the JT9D-7Q engines - quite the rocket ship if light, from what I am told. Alas, we will have to settle for her older brother the 744 with this release.

 

Back in those days they had water-injection into the engines to improve performance in hot n high conditions... pretty amazing.

[Guest]

Lovely stories - all of them.

 

It's like telling tales sitting around the camp fire....waiting for the dawning of a new day... those hangar doors about to roll open and open a new era in our flight simming...