Good Landings

[ides1056]

I returned from SF recently via United, and arrived at Bradley when the temperature was four degrees and a nasty crosswind was blowing. Everyone braced for getting slammed as we came down, and burst into applause when it went without any suggestion of turbulence.

I figured the pilot had to be Navy, and had honed his skill landing on carrier decks. He was in the front as I left and shook his hand. A kid, maybe 30, who learned to fly in Florida.

His employer heard from me.

[guido]

Flew into Cincinnati years ago on American. As we made the final approach had a massive wind sheer moment that had all of the flight crew looking quite shaken, let alone what the passengers looked like. But it felt like a feather landing when the plane touched down. On the way out, after the applause let up, I over heard two attendants commenting they had never heard of a sheer that dropped a plane so far...

[thollandpe]

Years ago I got the last flight out of Buffalo in heavy weather, on some little turboprop commuter that was probably a Shorts 360. I had that center seat in the back row, full flight, last one on.

We were getting bumped around so hard on approach that the cockpit door came open, and I could see the angle of the runway lights through the windscreen, as well as the movements of the pilots. Similar to your story, we touched down like Danny MacAskill landing on a rail.

Often I'll have a drink before boarding the plane. That time I had one after de-planing.

TH

[Tom]

We used to take a corporate shuttle to Cleveland that landed on the strip parallel and adjacent to the lake shore. One time it was blowing *hard* off the lake and the pilot was slipping it in as the waves were breaking and spray was drifting over the runway. The view from where I was sitting was lake-runway-hangar-runway-lake-runway-hangar... and at the last second we straightened and dropped in like a feather. That was impressive.

[bigbill]

I've done arrested landings on a carrier and been catapulted off a few times in cargo planes (C-2 Greyhound). None were smooth.

[thollandpe]

I've done arrested landings on a carrier and been catapulted off a few times in cargo planes (C-2 Greyhound). None were smooth.

Is that where the runway adds its own pitching and rolling onto the plane's pitching and rolling and yawing? Holy degrees of freedom, Batman.

Oh, and the runway is like 90 times shorter, hence the grabbing and throwing.

Zoinks!

[bigbill]

Is that where the runway adds its own pitching and rolling onto the plane's pitching and rolling and yawing? Holy degrees of freedom, Batman.

Oh, and the runway is like 90 times shorter, hence the grabbing and throwing.

Zoinks!

You sit facing the rear in the cargo plane. When you do an arrested landing and catch the wire, you're pinned to your seat, can't even raise your arms. When you catapult, you briefly hang by your 5 point harness until you catch up with the acceleration. I don't really care for it.

On a side note, I couldn't tell you what Jessica Simpson sings or even pick her out of a crowd, but on Christmas Eve 2001 in the Gulf of Oman while launching airstrikes against the Taliban, she arrived via an arrested landing and did a concert in the hangar bay. I'm a fan.

[theflashunc]

Avoid watching landing videos from Birmingham England. The crosswinds are harrowing. Incredible to watch some pilots crab walk a plane in.

[j44ke]

I've done arrested landings on a carrier and been catapulted off a few times in cargo planes (C-2 Greyhound). None were smooth.

My best pal's brother is a decorated Navy pilot who fought in (over?) Iraq and became a Top Gun instructor afterwards. I flew down to visit my pal while his brother was also visiting, and the pilot bounced the landing and final touchdown rattled everyone's teeth. When I told them what happened, he said "Navy pilot." But he said it with humor and pride both.

[bigbill]

My best pal's brother is a decorated Navy pilot who fought in (over?) Iraq and became a Top Gun instructor afterwards. I flew down to visit my pal while his brother was also visiting, and the pilot bounced the landing and final touchdown rattled everyone's teeth. When I told them what happened, he said "Navy pilot." But he said it with humor and pride both.

When GWB decided to invade Iraq in early 2003, the navy sent 6 carriers. We weren't due to deploy but got sent anyway. There aren't enough air wings for six carriers at once so we got a collection of squadrons including a reserve group out of DFW, mostly composed of American Airlines pilots flying F18C Hornets. They did much of their workup while we were transiting the Atlantic. I was an Officer of the Deck so I saw most landings which went from "hovering" down the deck without ever even touching because they weren't used to hard landings as an airline pilot to slamming on the deck and the plane being temporarily taken off service for inspection. The correct way is somewhere between.

Last summer before my son left for the Naval Academy, there was a sendoff at the Southwest Airlines headquarters in Dallas. The guest speaker was one of the pilots from that deployment. Now an Admiral, we immediately recognized each other as "ship driver" (me) and "Tool" (his call sign since his last name is DeWalt). He flies for Southwest these days. The squadron Flight Surgeon was there too, he's also a pilot but for AA.

[j44ke]

Chuck came out of MIT into the Navy flight training school, then he flew during the first Gulf War and trained pilots for the second one. I haven't seen him in about 10 years, but he was looking forward to retirement back then at 45 years old. Deserved it 100%.

[bking]

Years ago we were flying home from a ski trip in Sun Valley in a twin engine turbo prop. After a stop in Salt Lake we were just 5 mins or so into this second leg when the plane lurched to the left and the pilot came on telling us we needed to return to SLC and he began his turn. I was sitting in the last row looking out the right side when I noticed I could now see the blades of the propeller, and looking down the cabin I noticed everyone watching that engine, until the blades stopped. At that instant, every head turned to focus on the left engine, still doing it's job trying to keep us all aloft. No one said a word, they all just kept their eyes on that prop willing it to keep turning.
As the pilot brought the plane to the runway he was clearly to the right of it over grass (it was green I recall it must have been early spring skiing) when just before touching down he made a hard turn left to the center of the runway and dropped both wheels dead level onto the tarmac like he'd done this a hundred times before.
I asked my buddy who was upfront near the stewardess how she appeared, he said she was white as a ghost--no comfort from her at all. I thought it interesting that after they put us in the terminal for a bit then rolled up another plane, surely some wouldn't get back on; every seat was filled again.

[thollandpe]

I got to see Robert A. "Bob" Hoover put a P-51 Mustang and a Rockwell Shrike through their paces. Including the engine-out and dead-stick stuff in the Shrike. Just incredible what he could do, and so calm as he explains it.



A magician, willing to share his secrets.

TH

[bigbill]

I got to see Bob Hoover at an airshow when I was a kid, the engine off loops were amazing.

[rwsaunders]

Bird strike on approach coming into DEN. Landing gear was down so only 4-5 minutes left in the flight. Nice sunny day and no weather issues, so when the plane suddenly dipped to the port side, I just looked around and thought no biggie. A passenger seated near the port engine (I’m on the starboard side, same aisle) started pushing the FA call button and a FA in a jump seat unbuckled and ran to the passenger. Then the FA looked out the window, calmly went back to her seat and picked up the phone to the cabin.

When we landed, the plane seemed to really turn down the power then we sort of cruised to a location just off of the runway and they shut down the plane. Fire crew came to meet us and you could smell “burnt chicken” in the plane. The pilot explained what happened and then we had to be towed to a gate. When we got off the plane, the crew were on ladders taking photos of what was left of the birds. Makes you appreciate the redundancy of the equipment as we landed on one engine.

[bigbill]

Although carrier landings took away most of my concerns of hard landings, when I was stationed in Sardinia I had to fly between Rome and Olbia on Meridiana Airlines which used old MD-80's flown by what I believe to be former fighter pilots. Olbia was notorious for heavy winds and on one occasion we had to make four attempt before a successful landing. On one of the passes, the right wingtip came really close to the ground before the pilot powered up and went around again. On the successful landing, the pilots braked really hard because we were so far down the runway. The men and women screaming really added to the experience.

[Tom]

Not being a pilot or trained on the equipment I know I don't know what is within tolerance but flying into Midway Field in Chicago last summer looking out the window at the thunderstorm with its curtain to the ground obscuring everything beyond it, I tried to guess how far off it was from what I could see and decided it was maybe a mile to our left. I figured the pilots could see what was ahead or we we wouldn't be proceeding. As it was the 737 was bucking all over but again when we were close enough where one of those bucks would put us on somebody's roof it smoothed out and we kind of whacked down and they grabbed four handfuls of brakes. Considering that the heavens opened as we rolled to the gates, not bad.

[ides1056]

On a side note, I couldn't tell you what Jessica Simpson sings or even pick her out of a crowd, but on Christmas Eve 2001 in the Gulf of Oman while launching airstrikes against the Taliban, she arrived via an arrested landing and did a concert in the hangar bay. I'm a fan.