Listening to the Australian tower controller is a gas!
Watch this Russian transport plane use ALL of the runway on takeoff:
http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/2008-2-9-Il76-in-Australia.wmv
I have watched our water tankers taking off from Medford, Oregon on hot, calm days where they would reach lift off speed, raise the landing gear (to remove the drag) and the plane would sink back down two or three feet closer to the runway while they built more airspeed.
Frightening to observe from taxiway, I can only believe it was terrifying in the cockpit. (I do recall one captain having a heart attack and dying during takeoff. The copilot flew the remainder of the flight.)
They wouldn’t gain 20 feet of height in the next mile. When they got down to the cool air over the Russian River, that’s when their butts would come unglued from the seats and they could breathe normally again.
Why would they load the planes with so much weight? I have no idea.
LOL!!