[Milsurplus] B-29 Reverse Propellers Switch

[C Whitaker]

de WB2CPN

I was a passenger on a DC-8 I think, from Chicago to Newark,
and listening on an ATC frequency.  ATC was up tight, and offered
the pilot a clearence to decend "if he could do it".  The pilot agreed 
to the
clearence, and idled his inboard engines, and threw out the reverse
clams.  Then he brought up more power on all four engines. That airplane
did decend.  When he got to the bottom the pilot put averything back to
normal, and we went on into EWR.    I'd never seen this kind of thing 
before,
so I asked the pilot what he thought he was doing.  He said that the reverse
power was held fairly high, and was cancelled somewhat by the power from the
outboard engines, but if he needed forward power in a real hurry he didn't
need to wait for the inboard engines to wind up.  He just retracted the
clams, and the passengers got pushed back into their seats like on takeoff.
Any body ever see this?    Trivia:  The PBM, I think,  was the first 
aircraft
that I saw back up on the ramp.

73  Clete