You never know what you can do until you HAVE to.

Yes, you could have Mark. I can remember a Western Airlines 727 landing in Seattle years ago with out the nose gear, total damage to the plane was 50.00 worth of paint! What a great crew we had, the 727 was the most swept wing aircraft with all the engines on the tails as you know. The pilots transfered the remaining fuel to the outer tanks on the wings and transfered as much weight as they could to the back. The plane was at a complete stop when they set the nose down.

Don't underestimate yourself. The pilot that made that landing did prove amazing skill but, after flying a 727 for 15 years, I'm sure you could do it. 112 lives plus your own would be counting on it.

"Kudos" to this pilot that sat that fat bird down !!

Just a guess but if I wanted to keep the nose up and I am balancing on the rear landing gear would I not want to shift weight from in front of those wheels to behind them? I wonder if the pilot redistributed the weight to the rear by having the flight attendants move pasengers. Not being a pilot I don't know if this would work but it seems to be simple physics.