By this time, I had already some 1000's hours of flying, but nothing would prepare me for flying this absolutely unbelievable airplane: As a spitting image copy of the British VC-10, I expected a lot, but then I realise just the opposite, and reading about if, I fully understood.
When the Soviet engenieers copied the design, they did a lot of big mistakes! 1st, the wings were badly done, they were so unstable they had to incorporate some very strange, fixed slats in the front, to give them more lift.
2nd, after landing, the plane was so badly designed and so unstable, the Flight engenier had to run (literaly) to the back, and manualy lower a small extra landing gear, otherwise the plane would fall back and scratch the tail.
Worst, the IL-62 did NOT have Auto-Pilot, it had to be flown manually, with very little assistance, a nightmare for the Pilots, I'm sure, but also to the poor passengers.
I had to fly the 9 hours Moscow to Tokyo, in the night, the plane going nose down, with the wind, and being pulled up, manually, by the Pilots...
A lot... The funny parts, I'll write some day, when in a better mood...