13 Minutes of Unbelievable Moments
Sponsored
Just a bit of info on the B787 bounce from an airline pilot's perspective. It did look like a pretty challenging day. Of course I know next to no details about this flight, but after watching it, here's what I think happened : Due to the weather, they were likely fighting gusts as well as trying to maintain airspeed. It's important to be at the proper speed upon landing, but when you're expecting "negative performance" windshear (suddenly loosing critical airspeed) it's common to come in with a few extra knots. I do it all the time. It adds a safety buffer on airspeed, but also has to be corrected before the landing flare to avoid floating and eating up precious runway. Landing performance (fancy pilot math) is based on pretty strict parameters. It looks like they were a touch high and likely fast, which is better than low or slow! Given the conditions it was reasonable, I guess. It appears they pitched down to attempt the landing within the landing zone (a calculated distance you must touch down to ensure a safe stop). After pitching down they did avoid a nose wheel first landing which is good, but then they bounced. Of course they're still a bit fast and back in the air, which isn't great, but here's where it really gets fun! When you land an airliner, there are usually parameters which have to be met in order for the ground lift dumping spoilers to deploy. These are the big surfaces that lift straight up when you land to "kill" the lift, essentially making your wing quit flying, the aircraft "stick" to the ground, and allow you to maximize braking. The standard parameters are something close to - wheel spin up, engines at idle for more than 3 seconds, within 5 feet of the ground measured by your radar altimeter and weight on wheels sensors (usually you need two or three but not all). So at the moment they bounced, this is a perfectly executed go around - they did good! Because after the bounce, you are at idle, wheels are spinning, and when you get to 5 feet and the ground lift dumping spoilers deploy, can you guess what happens? You drop violently sending the main landing gear struts right up through the wings and likely skid to an uncontrolled stop and hope your passengers are OK because your airplane and your career ain't! Now, that was technical and long winded. The real question is, why oh why are they even in a position where this happens? We all underestimate the weather now and then and do what pilots get paid for to keep you safe. If this storm was known to be a real whopper though, dispatch shouldn't have sent them and they should have questioned flying in to risky weather like this. Again, it happens, and more often than most people realize, so I'm not pointing fingers at the pilots. Just sucks to be in that situation, but once they bounced this was a textbook executed go around. Great job!
Sponsored
Video
Sponsored
Facebook Comments
