Antonov An-124 Ruslan (UR-82072)

It was interesting to watch the process involved getting this away. It pushed back with rear doors and a forward crew door open and remained on the apron for better than 15 minutes before doors were finally closed and engines started.

It taxied to Foxtrot 6 to enter 05 and sat at the threshold for perhaps another 10 minutes, during which time engines were run at power for 4 minutes, as requested by the pilot.

A Virgin 738 departed from the Foxtrot 5 taxiway entry to 05 and with the appropriate delay to allow for wake turbulence, the Antonov finally got underway.

Although the day was quite cool, heat wave distortion was terrible and this was the first moderately decent shot. Reducing the file size for upload certainly helps clarify pictures.

Brisbane nonstop to HNL would have been a long sector for her. Nice shot Gavin and great background info as usual.

Thanks Chris. Did notice that BNE-HNL sector.

Five star, as usual, snap and cap, Gavin. And BTW, might you perhaps know why they have to do a 4-5 min engine runup at (almost) max power? They did it here too but they weren't exactly lined up with the paved pad and they created a dust storm so bad some people reported it as a fire. Looked like a mini-haboob like the folks in Arizona get. I can't even recall the last time I saw ANY jet-engined aircraft do a runup not to mention a 4 to 5 MINUTE runup. I've tried looking up the answer to my question but thus far no luck. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places ....

Thanks for compliment Gary. I don't have any idea why the run-up is needed, but when I heard the pilot's request I recalled your pic of the Reno dust storm! They started out with Lotarev engines but I don't know what engines are on it these days. You'd think it would be easy, but darned if I find info from sources I searched. Someone will know and perhaps know the reason why they need the run-up.

Gary & Gavin,

From what I can find and understand to be the reason for the run-up, it is to reduce blade tip clearance in order to reach required take-off power (read: internal temp stabilization). The warm-up is sometimes performed on 2 engines at a time, hence the length of time it takes.
Cheers
Viv

Hello Viv, really good to see you back on board. Is your SA still locked up?

I did find some info on the engine run-up but only that it was a requirement, not the reason. Your answer is really welcome. Also found that the current engines are Progress D-18T high-bypass turbofans each producing 51,000 lb thrust.