Author Topic: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink  (Read 1789 times)

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Offline Rapunzel

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Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« on: February 18, 2014, 02:49:21 am »
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/17/crazy-landing-shows-pilot-pushing-airplane-landing-gear-to-the-brink/

Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
Feb. 17, 2014 1:07pm Elizabeth Kreft   


Video captured at the end of a British airport runway shows just how strong airline landing gear has to be to get passengers down safely in rough weather.

Pilots have to land in crazy conditions every day all over the world. Low visibility scares most passengers since they can’t see the ground, but most pilots will tell you that crosswind is actually one of the trickiest adversaries.



The video captures the moments when the plane’s landing gear is tested to the max by the crab landing. (Image source: YouTube)

In this case, the pilot executed a “crab landing,” which sometimes happens when a pilot is faced with fierce crosswind conditions and has to land the plane at a funky angle on the runway. The crab-like motion comes from the moment the tires touch down, and the plane ends up “hopping” back into position as the pilot corrects the angle.

When the wind is blowing this strongly, the ideal situation is to “let the plane weather vane into the wind and correct just moments before touchdown,” Robert Skelton, a Virgin America pilot told TheBlaze. “Or you can actually land with the angle at touchdown and correct after.” Which is what the pilot did here.



The plane looks like it’s walking like a crab for a few moments as the angle is corrected to then safely finish the taxi. (Image source: YouTube)

See the Boeing 767′s bouncy landing, uploaded to YouTube by FlugSnug:

But a Delta Air Lines pilot sharply criticized the landing, telling TheBlaze in an email: “That is a grossly incorrect crosswind landing. He/she landed in a ‘crab’ which is wrong.”


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x85YYLuCY4

“The correct way is at some point on short final use rudder to align the nose and upwind aileron to prevent drift due to the wind. Put it down firmly and then push the nose down to hold it there,” the pilot said.
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2014, 02:52:05 am »
Reminds me of a landing we experienced in Houston on our way home from Jamaica.......  not fun...  (however it was better than what happened when we went to land at LAX and the pilot was just setting down and had to pull up hard and fast to avoid hitting a small plane that pulled out on the runway we were landing on).
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2014, 03:05:37 am »
That's not even close to pushing the gear to its maximum, but still a very bad landing by the pilot.  He should have aborted and gone around for another attempt.

But the Boeing held up very well.  If it's not Boeing, I'm not going.
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Offline happyg

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2014, 03:08:53 am »
I never had any close calls that I am aware of, but years ago, coming back from Mexico, we got into a turbulence, and I thought the plane was going to fall apart. I played it cool, but was praying under my breath.

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2014, 03:21:01 am »
I never had any close calls that I am aware of, but years ago, coming back from Mexico, we got into a turbulence, and I thought the plane was going to fall apart. I played it cool, but was praying under my breath.

You're lucky.  Back in the 70's a friend and I were flying to the Bahama's from LAX. The plane we were on lost all four engines over the Gulf of Mexico.  The pilot managed to get two of the engines restarted, but not before we dropped quite a bit in altitude.  That plane was a disaster from the start, my seat wouldn't recline, the person in the forward seat from my friend - every time the lady in the seat moved around the beverage tray would fall down in my friends lap..... anyway, I was dozing off when there was a loud bang and the engines stopped.  You have a lot of time to think at 30,000 feet.   The pilot turned on the no smoking and fasten seat belt signs. My friend who had never flown before didn't realize this was a bad situation until the stewardess in our section promptly dropped an entire tray of orange juice on the ground (they were serving breakfast when this happened) and then laid down in the aisle and told the lady in the seat in front of my friend to hold on to her!!!     

When the pilot managed to restart two engines the stewardesses told us - we "should" be okay if the engines hold, we're making an emergency landing in Tampa (instead of Miami where we were headed).  As soon as we were stopped on the tarmac the FAA was all over that plane. I guess the back of the plane had fish-tailed badly when this happened and they had been serving oatmeal at the time, there was oatmeal all over the walls of the plane and they were taking pillow cases off to wipe things down - a man coming out of the restroom was knocked around and broke a leg, so they brought in a wheelchair to take him off the plane..... all-in-all quite an "adventure" I didn't enjoy flying for many, many years after this happened.  When George and I flew to Tahiti we were both a nervous wreck since we flew on a DC10 and it was right after the incident in Chicago when the engine fell off a DC-10.

�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline happyg

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2014, 03:28:02 am »
OMG! I probably would never fly again after something like that. I got squeamish just reading your post.

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2014, 03:34:47 am »
OMG! I probably would never fly again after something like that. I got squeamish just reading your post.

What is funny this was back when National Airlines (remember them) named all their planes. Our plane was named "Caroline" (nope not a joke).......   as it turned out the Bahama's sucked and after a few days we made a reservation and returned to Miami for the majority of the vacation.  When it was time to fly back to California when we checked in I asked the ticket agent if the plane was named Caroline because if it was we'd take a different flight.  No way was I getting on the plane again. 

I had to fly a lot for business so I got used to flying.  But George and I had some really interesting experiences - like circling for two hours waiting to land at San Francisco because it was fogged in - the fog had moved in during the time it took to fly from Orange County Airport to SFO, but honestly, I think the worst was the fast pull up and go around at LAX.  When you hear the landing gear go down and the plane crosses the 405 you know you are just seconds from touch down and home and then all of a sudden no warning the nose is pointed straight up, the engines are revved and the gear comes back up and at the same time he makes a fast turn around because they will let us get back in the que without going back out over the desert and getting back in line for a landing.

When we lived in Chino Hills we used to sit in our spa at night watching all the planes heading into LAX...... amazing amount of traffic.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2014, 03:36:07 am by Rapunzel »
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2014, 03:42:48 am »
One other story -- when we lived in Chino Hills we sat up in the hills overlooking the valley below. Out in the distance was Ontario Airport.  there was a deep valley between our homes and the homes way across behind us.. the valley area was all wilderness area - which was nice except during fire season - anyway, one foggyish morning I went downstairs to the kitchen and heard this loud noise and went out in the back yard.  Coming across that deep valley behind our house at eye level was a passenger jet out of Ontario. Now to this day I don't know what the problem was, clearly there was a problem.  I can still remember looking in the windows of the plane as it glided past the back of our house and seeing the lights on inside and people looking back at me through the windows. I honestly thought it was going to crash because we were actually on the lower end of the hill rose steeply in the direction of the plane travel, somehow he threaded his way around the hillside and stayed above the valley floor.  I ran upstairs to watch first from the bedroom windows and then from my office window which looked out toward Ontario Airport. What I saw was the plane managed to circle around and out over Chino and headed back to Ontario where he landed......   if I had been on that flight I'm not certain I'd want to fly again. 
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Chieftain

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2014, 03:46:25 am »
Here's the video.....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x85YYLuCY4

It's gonna be a bumpy ride.......


Offline Chieftain

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #9 on: February 18, 2014, 03:49:06 am »
If you look closely at the video, you can see him bounce from one wheel to the other and it takes a couple of bounces till he gets weight on both wheels long enough for the spoilers to auto-deploy.  Look at the wings flexing as he is on short final.  One of the only things that makes this kind of landing possible is those winglets on the end of each wing.  They do a lot to provide stability in these kind of conditions. 

Not that bad of a landing considering the conditions, and there are many examples of landings that are far worse than this one.....

« Last Edit: February 18, 2014, 03:51:05 am by Chieftain »

Offline happyg

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #10 on: February 18, 2014, 03:50:18 am »
Yikes! I hate flying, but did fly with Pat when he jumped. One time, he was jumping into my sister's yard. They took the door off the plane because it opened the wrong way, and Pat didn't want to take the chance of hitting it. I had my camera ready to take pictures, but he was gone in a flash. Terry, the pilot, turned the plane on its side so I could take pictures, but I was too damned scare to do anything but scream at Terry.

My family was watching, and thought I was falling out of the plane. The seatbelt was loose, but tight enough to keep me attached!  Pat slid in to a perfect landing, and he used those old military type parachutes.

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #11 on: February 18, 2014, 03:50:20 am »
If you look closely at the video, you can see him bounce from one wheel to the other and it takes a couple of bounces till he gets weight on both wheels long enough for the spoilers to auto-deploy.  Not that bad of a landing considering the conditions, and there are many examples of landings that are far worse than this one.....

Look at those wheels flex........ **nononono*
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Chieftain

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #12 on: February 18, 2014, 03:54:25 am »
Look at those wheels flex........ **nononono*

oh yah....mandatory hard landing inspection after this one, for certain....


Offline EC

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #13 on: February 18, 2014, 06:00:52 am »
Wife has hundreds of horror stories about flying - she has been cabin crew for 17 years.

Like the time her plane caught fire and they had to make an emergency landing in South Africa. The fire was extinguished, then the plan caught fire again on the return sector (fortunately she wasn't on it) and it had to make another emergency landing.
Or the time she had to knock a guy out using the coffee pot because he was trying to get into the cockpit. (That was just after 9/11, so you can imagine how jumpy they were)
Passengers need to be restrained about every 5th flight, and they have it down to a fine art. Sometimes they try to open the cabin door mid flight.
The funny one where they got stuck in Antigua because the plane sank into the runway before takeoff. Or her phoning me one morning, she was due home, from Sidney because the flight ahead of theirs had caught fire and their plane was diverted from Singapore to pick up the passengers.
The time when she had to use two extension belts and the jemmy to keep a cabin door sealed - it kept trying to open on it's own.Or the time she had to physically hold a door open to provide ventilation - in the middle of a hurricane. They'd diverted and only found out when they landed that the airport didn't have a set of steps tall enough for a 747.

She's braver than most.
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Offline mountaineer

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #14 on: February 18, 2014, 01:37:16 pm »
In related news ...
Quote
Passengers recount fears after turbulent flight
Laurie Cipriano and Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY 8:27 a.m. EST February 18, 2014
One woman hit the ceiling so hard it cracked the panel above her, passenger said.


Kerri Mullins had just taken a picture of the clear blue skies over Montana moments before she says she experienced the scariest 25 seconds of her life.

Mullins, from Arvada, Colo., was aboard United Airlines Flight 1676 from Denver to Billings when it hit turbulence so severe that people were tossed from there seats. Three flight attendants and two passengers were injured.

"I thought 'Wow! Yeah, this is it,'" Mullins said. "It's the most helpless feeling ever - to just be sitting there and not have any control over anything."

Mullins said the plane turned sharply to the right and started plunging. ...  Rest of story
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Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #15 on: February 18, 2014, 06:10:49 pm »
Strap in and stay strapped in........ 
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline happyg

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Re: Crazy Landing Shows Pilot Pushing Airplane Gear to the Brink
« Reply #16 on: February 18, 2014, 06:16:29 pm »
Quote
"We did hit a little bit of turbulence right before we landed, so it was very unnerving after we had just been through all of this," Mullins said. She said the pilot didn't make an announcement about the incident.

"I thought it was very interesting that the pilot never came on and said anything about what had happened," Mullins said. "There was nothing."

Either the pilot was too shook up to speak, or just didn't want to talk about it. When we ran into turbulence, the pilot came on and soothed us, while explaining it was no big deal. This pilot owed it to his passengers to say something.