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Fancy landing a Dreamliner at Heathrow in this wind? See how the professionals attempt it. Riveting viewing.
Done to death on the Eunice thread.
Ah sorry. I shall birch myself.
Meh. Now, Kaitek in a crosswind when you had to put the wheels on the ground with the plane pointing 45 degrees to the runway having completed a sharp turn a couple of hundred feet up so you can't actually see the runway until the last minute...
*bites nails*
I'd be gripping the seatback for sure 😂
My friend just landed on BA288 @LHR and said it wasn’t too bad. Must have got lucky
You need a B52 when it’s breezy.
Kaitek
Or Kai Tak even... 🙂
I’d be [s]gripping[/s] sh*tt*ng the seatback for sure
FTFY
I’d be gripping the seatback for sure
Clenched would be a more appropriate term. Hands and buttocks 😆
That was a pretty spectacular piece of footage. the aircraft literally hanging in the air, the engines going up to full power as it struggled against the wind. Thats the pilot you want flying your holiday to Majorca thats for sure.
We actually flew out of Majorca in Oct '19 into a thunderstorm after sitting for 3 hours on the tarmac, there was plenty of screams and yes, I was fully clenched 😬
I do remember once looking out of the window, straight down the runway we were landing on.
I did tighten my seatbelt.
Quick question - I had always assumed that modern airliners combined with ILS etc pretty much land themselves. I assume in these sorts of conditions it’s a much more ‘hands on’ approach from the pilots?
I assume in these sorts of conditions it’s a much more ‘hands on’ approach from the pilots?
There's a few commercial pilots on the forum, hopefully some of them will be along shortly.
Find some of the in-cockpit footage of rough landings and watch the auto-throttles plus the work that the pilots are doing telling the system all the info it needs and monitoring it. It's genuinely fascinating stuff.
It comes up sometimes on programmes like Air Crash Investigations, especially if they're looking at historic crashes from the 70s/80s when aircraft didn't have all this, they'll describe comparisons between older and modern aircraft and how a modern system would have avoided the crash.
We had a double go-around coming into Edinburgh as Storm Andrea built up.
The pilot placed the plane down 'keenly', I am sure we left a dent from the wheels on touchdown....
For a MTB link: hadn't realised it's the same Jerry Dyer that used to run Dirt magazine.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-dyer-915238145
Big Jet TV....
Smirks. 😁
Re that 45 degree landing - I was in a small twin prop to Shetland that landed like that. The acute angle of the entry into Lerwick in the buffeting wind meant all I could see from the R/H side was Sea whilst wondering how the aero of a plane at that angle works in gale. All the while, the pilot was calmly explaining the manoeuvre about to happen.
I went straight to the bar once I got to the Hotel.
It was up to just under 200k people watching earlier today.
I saw 208k at one point
Re DIRT magazine, coupled with accent, possibly why I think I’m listening to Rob Warner commentating on planes.
In support of OP this deserves its own thread given today’s coverage specifically of Big Jet TV in the mainstream and social media.
The wind has obviously died down a bit or gone to a full headwind because the landings now are much more mundane.
Also, this is worth a read:
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv/2022/02/why-we-all-fell-in-love-with-big-jet-tv
Gonna wind up with a very rare 747. Beautiful
I saw 208k at one point
All hoping for it to go horrifically wrong.
Now I’m one of 108k people watching a man getting interviewed on ITV in the distance 😂
208k at one point
The power of STW.
You really need to have the right stuff to be a pilot don't you?
The pressure must make a neurosurgeons life seem like easy street in comparison.
All hoping for it to go horrifically wrong.
I think that says something about you. I watched a few times today and I never wanted that.
It is the same with Rally videos, I love Rallying, but hate watching 'crashes' and will often turn off/over if I see the start of a bad one.
Since my MTB 'off', I am almost physically sick when I see the start of a MTB crash and censor myself by trying not to click on links that suggest they involve a crash and close my eyes and stab for the pause button when I get it wrong.
You really need to have the right stuff to be a pilot don’t you?
Perhaps. Son2 is training in Spain at Jerez at the moment. It's not been a great week, although reasons for this incident are as yet unclear
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/brit-student-26-dies-after-26255055
I've parked in the Hatton Cross car park to watch the landings. The Big Jets post is on a patch of grass just outside the airport perimeter road on the A30. Been past many times cycling to work.
I landed as a passenger (OBVs cos I'm not peak stw) in a 777 coming in from Changi today, it was wobbly but fine. Touchdown was good, solid but not disturbing.
Sitting on the apron waiting for Gate was more interesting.
LHR couldn't get people out to offload luggage which meant a 2 hour wait for that.
TiRed, that’s not good news from Jerez.
On a day like today, there will always be an airport with less windy conditions, so you carry enough fuel to enable you to make two attempts at your original destination and then bugger off to your calmer diversion airport.
As for the right stuff…I can’t manual yet.
There was a flight from Larnaca that after two fails went all the way to Newcastle.
Quick question – I had always assumed that modern airliners combined with ILS etc pretty much land themselves.
Autoland has its limitations and it's not particularly that often you use them.
It's used in poor visibility and low cloudbase, not on days like today. On my aircraft (A330), the wind limitations for an autoland would have been exceeded today, and the airport has to put certain measures in place to avoid interference of the ILS; an aircraft taxying in the wrong spot could see you depart the runway pretty quickly, if those measures aren't in place.
There was a flight from Larnaca that after two fails went all the way to Newcastle.
The only failure would be to press on with an unstable or unsafe approach. Throwing a bad approach away is a good thing. So that flight had more success than any failure.
I did wonder if it was the same Jerry Dyer, fair play to the guy for continuing to find jobs that are obviously a passion and a lot of fun!
Worst I had was coming into Cardiff one time where you could see sky-land-sky-land-sky at quite severe angles outside the window as the aircraft came in to land - that was enough!
Is it just Cardiff where people clap the pilot when landing? Had that more than once
The other random one was flying back from Shanghai were the headwind was so strong we had to fly into Finland to refuel, a bunch of passengers were dieing to open the doors for a ciggie! 🙂
If you missed it, Jerry was interviewed on Today on R4 this morning. Was very insightful. Think it was about 8:45AM
Leeds Bradford is on top of a hill and misaligned to the prevailing wind. Coupled with a glut of holiday airlines you get a lot of clapping there in winter.
It certainly makes it challenging in these winds! You may well get a firmer landing, as positioning is more important than finessing a smooth landing. Touching down 1 wheel first is Also quite normal - as we flare for landing, kick the aircraft straight with rudder, then maintain tracking with one wing down into the wind.
As said ^^^^ knowing when to GoAround and try again, instead of forcing it is the sign of a good crew, not a lack of skill/effort.
Ive seen some decidedly dodgy attempts on BJTV, and live whilst waiting to take off.
Just watched (via FlightRadar) my sister's flight land at Manchester Airport. They were in a holding pattern for a while over Merseyside while a massive spike of weather blew through, it was absolutely torrential. Off to pick her up soon, be interesting to hear what the landing was like!
My wife is currently stuck at Heathrow trying to get out on a plane. Seems chaotic, still lots of flight cancellations?
Is Heathrow always windy? When I used to fly out of Bristol a lot I do remember a couple of landings there where I could look out my window and see down the runway as we came in almost sideways. It always seemed challenging.
Had one aborted landing at Heathrow. It's quite scary as a passenger. Couple of screams. Came in and the pilot saw something one the runway so gave it some welly and pulled up at the last minute. Everything that was loose in the cabin ended up near the back.
Heathrow is struggling. Short of staff, winds limiting loading/unloading. Aircraft and crews out of position after diversions.
Not much getting to MAN this morning and most flights have to abort landing. Flightradar24 is very interesting.
We stopped departures from Heathrow, Stansted, Luton and City for a while yesterday.
Inbounds were struggling to land at Luton and Stansted so were returning to the established holds while they waited for weather to improve or decide on where to divert. When the holds were full a line squall of cells passed through and every aircraft(appx 20) left the holds to avoid it.
This resulted in all those aircraft wanting different headings and altitudes/levels. We stopped departures whilst we dealt with this as its generally safer for the planes to stay on the ground rather then add to the complexity.
Probably one of the harder days I've had...😬
Not much getting to MAN this morning and most flights have to abort landing. Flightradar24 is very interesting.
Just watching a Scandinavian Airlines flight in a hold over Blackburn.
My sister's flight yesterday was holding over Merseyside for a while as a massive spike of weather went through, it was absolutely torrential for about 15 mins. They finally got released for a circuit around the north of Manchester then in over Stockport, made it down first time but nearly an hour late.
Edit - just to be clear she was a passenger, not the pilot!
CobraKai, that sounded like a fun day yesterday, luckily being based at Bristol, don’t tend to get affected by London shenanigans.
Flew back empty into Bristol, as we got on approach, ground speed was about 100kts 😂
I’ve probably spoken to you on numerous occasions 👍
We had big issues with lack of ground staff on Saturday, due to all the cancellations on Friday being moved to Saturday, the ground handlers only had staff for the scheduled arrivals/departures and therefore when more aircraft turned up, chaos ensued, probably what is happening at Heathrow.
Some nice landings in the Heathrow video. I love flying but I'm not a big fan of turbulence. Having said that, I'd love to be able to look out of a cabin window and see the runway!
I don't really work EGGD traffic unless it's positioning in or out out of the London TMA but yes, it was busy yesterday, more so than Friday and Sat.
There’s no doubt London ATC are some of the best in the business, especially when there is issues with weather. They are calm and measured. I think uk pilots and ATC have a brilliant level of trust. They know we only ask for avoiding action if it’s really important. I’ve never been refused it when needed, but I also try and give them a range of options.
Thanks Dan. You're right, the level of trust is very high.
I always find if I'm given specifics, ie heading and distance required, then it's easier to agree. I always try and deal with a weather avoidance request within 3 transmissions because by the nature of the scenario, you don't have much time to chat!