I've seen a few of the RAF C17's floating around the UK on my SBS display but never expected to see one up close. That was my luck yesterday when ZZ175 came over to Ronaldsway and then flew circuits for an hour! The weather was a bit dull so the pictures I took from my window were not of the best. Here's a typical one: http://www.homepages.mcb.net/bones/WebAircraft/ZZ175.jpg Note the huge fin and rudder area. You don't need that size of vertical area unless the aircraft has been designed to fly very slowly. Slow speed provides far less rudder effectiveness so the only way to control the aircraft at slow speed and with an engine out is to have a bigger rudder area. In fact one approach he made was at a very high nose up attitude and I would guess he was flying not much faster than a small twin. For such a large aircraft it looked incredibly slow. bones bones@xxxxxxx