Terry, the probe is on the end of a very long line that is attached to a reel in the aft fuselage. It is deployed for hundreds of feet behind the airplane where it picks up clean air data that in turn is used to calibrate the test instruments.They lose a lot of them, I'm told. Switches
From what I could see it looked like he had it just about all straightened out by the time he touched down.
The forward slip and side slip was always an integral part of my flying repertoire from early in my flight instruction. Great for short fields and bad approaches. Spasso always got a great and probably an unsettling view from the rear seat in our old airplane. But then he is the only guy I know who has ridden through a snap roll facing backwards. Switches
I fly for a major airline and am typed in the 73,75 and 76. A big airplane is flown no differently than a small airplane. In a heavy crosswind a healthy dose of rudder and opposing aileron to hold the wing from rising in the flare, puts the gear trucks on the ground parallel to the runway. Only an amateur scrubs rubber in a crosswind.
I fly a 747-400, and we basically fly crabbed until touchdown..or shortly before. Then give rudder to straighten the nose and a little aileron to hold the wings level. At a landing weight of 600,000 lbs and a rather hard landing at 600 fpm, the 747 will hit the inboard engine at only 6 degrees of bank. So Boeing recommends staying crabbed in the landing. Not sure about the other Boeings though.......Lou
Amen! I fly the same planes your typed in and bigger ones. Only a hack lands sideways in a transport category jet. It is hard on the equipment and violent for the passengers and crew sitting in the back! The jet can take it but it is not the preferred method to land in a crab, even in the 747. Our policy is to de-crab no later than 200ft agl and use the side slip method for touchdown. The tires get chewed up pretty bad landing at high gross weights in a crab and that cost $$$$ Cheers
Paul- 200' seems a bit high, but then we were flying much smaller aircraft with smaller control moments and never landed crabbed either. At 600 fpm, you have 20 seconds before you touch down, even more if you consider the flare/ground effects decreasing the descent rate. How long does it take to get the aircraft to come out of the crab? Your rudder/vertical stabilizer is bigger than the wing on some of the fighters I flew. Taz Terry Phillips
Taz, 3 to 5 seconds if done smoothly! to decrab and align depending on the angle of crab. The Flight Test Guide on the DC-10 calls for 3 degrees per second of rotation when evaluating the Autoland Mode in the Alignment Manuever. This occurs at 218' RA. The FMA will annunciate DECRAB. It is very smooth much like a rotation rate on takeoff. We dont stomp on the rudder in high crosswinds or our nose will be pointed in the weeds! The autoland in the 757/767 does it at 500 ft Taz. Things happen fast at 210,000 lb (757) 320,000 (767) 436,000 (DC-10) 652,000 (747) max landing weights and dont forget the inertia associated with it and not uncommon 160 knot approach speeds. We are in the 750 fpm to 900 fpm range depending on weight and wind in the jumbos and yes the Rudder is very powerful, especially the split design such as the DC-10 which also articulates. I have landed in no shi t 60 knot crosswinds in the Falklands in the DC-10 and it will amaze u how powerfull the rudders actually are. We want to be stabilized no later than 200 ft in the alignment manuever if hand flying which is the best part of the job! Landing and taxiing these monsters. Cheers
Paul- Very interesting and thanks. I have no experience in the big boys except as pax. For us in fighters it was much closer to touchdown, but we did not have to worry about dragging much except maybe a GBU-15/AGM-130 on the F-111F and F-15E. Those were big weapons. Max crosswind component for most fighters is 35 knots or less, but we nearly always had two runways from which to choose. Taz Terry Phillips
