Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream IV (N1624K)

Awesome! Love when they use reverse thrust on the taxiways and ramps. Was that at Prior?

When I was at Mildenhall our Bravo Squadron C130's backed out every morning under their own power. One time while I was working ramp tramp we had a C141B back up to the fuel receptical on the hard stand. Afyer the Air Force, we did it once in our EMB145 because the tug broke down.

Back in the day we used reverse to back our 727's and DC9's out of gates at KATL and others. Reverse really paid off when runways, taxiways and ramps got icy.

STOP!!!!

A DC-9 flight I was on had the reversers fail, mid-deployment. OMG! They laid on the brakes as hard as they could. We stopped a little long, but after a short delay, and visit from 'mechanics', we took of and landed the second time uneventfully. Thanks for the people in the coveralls. They don't get the recognition they deserve.

DTW used to allow the DC/MD airplanes to backup using reverse thrust. They stopped a few years ago. I have no idea why, and I doubt it was because of noise. I thought it odd. I remember hearing them backing out early in the morning while I tried, in vain, to sleep in the Westin hotel. Most of my connection flights were early to mid-morning so it was like a wake-up call.

Like that matters. So why did they stop using reverse thrust to back out of the gate? Anyone know?

Robert -

Fron what I read, they' mostly stopped using the reversers to back out of gates due to the EXTREME wear and tear it caused to the engines...

To put this issue into perspective, once below 60 knots during the landing rollout it is SOP to cancel reverse thrust. There are too many risks of damaging the engines below that speed. Turboprops have a bit more latitude.

This Gulfstream IV is on a taxiway, as opposed to rolling out after landing on a runway...he/she is probably just in idle reverse thrust with the buckets deployed.

I can imagine it would be 'wear and tear'. They have to hit high thrust to get the plane to move, and they really loose a lot of control too. People in the hotel can get their beauty sleep now... :-D

More than likely, just testing the TR's prior to takeoff...a checklist item. Cheers!

Hundo

I agree with the note that using thrust reversers to back away from the gate is putting extra, and unneeded, wear and tear on the engines. When I worked at FedEx, we would regularly walk the gate areas looking for foreign objects. The reason was the multi-million dollar engines would suck loose stuff up and damage the engines. Using the thrust reversers at pushback would risk debris being blown forward and then get sucked into the engine. Tugs remove those risks.

Another issue is that many airlines took a look at their procedures when fuel prices spiked. Several years ago, I was reading about airlines literally looking at every item on the aircraft to assess whether the weight was necessary. In those articles, there were also comments about minimizing engine runtime. Saving fuel by getting engines shutdown as soon as possible, and on the other end, not firing them up any earlier than necessary. I think there was a time with airlines where they just accepted all the fuel costs as just necessary for the business. But, that has definitely changed.