OT: Check out this plane trying to land in high winds

[Norman Atkinson]

High Winds

I spent my formative years with military pilots, many of whom continue to fly in 'civvy street' upon retirement. I could continue and say that I had no option but to fly in any conditions.

Unashamedly, one does separate the people whom one can trust in a difficult situation and one's that one wouldn't. It was interesting to assess the correspondents regarding the criteria demanded of those who have the responsibilities in life and the one's who haven't.

I wonder where you place yourselves.

[dp]

I've been obliged to land in hellacious cross winds and you can't not succeed finally - you bloom where you're planted or die. It's not like you can just toddle off to another runway and try again. At some point you have to stop flying. All runways in a geographical region are similarly aligned and you have to deal with cross winds. It's just a flying fact of life.

This one came out ok - nearly dragged a wing but he got it on the centerline initially and aligned with the centerline before being blown into the weeds. He didn't have adequate weight on wheels to keep it pointed down the runway and that is because of the gusting problem. Not at all unusual. Still, a good recovery. There's a lot of interesting air at ground level with gusting high crosswinds and these things happen.

The science of flying in such conditions guarantees every landing won't be pretty but if you're good they can be safe. All of mine were but I can recall like it was yesterday one in 1983 that was really not pretty - got slapped hard on the back with a downdraft on the at Vantage in the Columbia Gorge. It's not like you can see those coming, but it resulted in a pretty hard setdown - cleared the fence, though, and that's what counts.

If you have never flown yourself you can't know what the dynamics are.

[aostling]

I wonder where you place yourselves.

My apologies to Ground Control.

[Evan]

I landed my Cessna 140 at Mill Bay strip once when according to the wind sock there was a mild crosswind. It turned out to be right at the precise limit of control possible with that aircraft and the landing was made with full rudder deflection and opposite aileron. As I came to a standstill the aircraft weather vaned into the wind but stayed on the wheels. It was interesting. Much more interesting is landing float planes when the choice of direction is limited and you have wave action to deal with as well as the wind.

The off hand description of the airline pilot's job is often stated as being 1000's of hours of utter boredom puntuated by moments of sheer terror. He had his moment that time.

[Wirecutter]

This was always one of my favorites. I went to upload it on YouTube, but found that at least one person beat me to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fjW6yK1eho

Perhaps the effect is enhanced by zoom and camera angle, but in any case, this is a pretty hairy landing.

-Mark

[dockrat]

The off hand description of the airline pilot's job is often stated as being 1000's of hours of utter boredom puntuated by moments of sheer terror. He had his moment that time.

Evan...the same has been said about sailing...been there

[tony ennis]

There an airfield in Hong Kong Kai Tek with a terribly reputation for crazy crosswinds.

Here's a few random x-wind landings.

[Norman Atkinson]

High Winds

Tony, funny enough my Lodge was having a talk about aircraft carriers on Wednesday night and we were 'shooting the sh1t' about carrier decks, filling them with quick setting concrete and pushing guys off to get five minute swim in a sea survival rate of 4 minutes.
All went well- I'd been collecting kit bags with a walking stick and all that sort of jazz. You know the QBI boards out in the December afternoon- and a converted B-26 came in on 1026 yards over the railway embankment in the 10/10 cloud and half dark. Saw gap and an unlit- wrong airfield! Bingo and a troop of Greek kids came out to shop in London!

Fine, the port was making things hazy and Jim, armed with sword announced that he had landed a V Bomber full of 'bottled mushroom clouds' stored in the bombbays into HK airport. Time for another bottle of 'vino collapso' or four for our grizzled old farts. Somewhat shamefaced the question came back- 'You went into HK in November, Norm. Well?' I giggled from under a gravy stained bow tie 'Actually, W Master, I was fast asleep from getting on in Dubai until we landed in Honky Konky' but my wife holds the record for falling asleep- with an aqualung on. But that is quite another story!

Cheers

N

[Alistair Hosie]

I would say the pilot did a good job no one was hurt and he used his wits to save lives so why is he such a bad guy I could be wrong of course i am no expert but when you think how it could have been I say he did well.Alistair

[Norman Atkinson]

High Winds

Alistair,
You will know as well as anyone else that the North of the British Isles has been persistently subject to high winds since Christmas. If you listened to the 10pm weather - and it's 11pm now, a further storm is heading our way. Meantime. we have had minor storms and severe gales and one of them is rocking my trees now. Further North, the A9 has been under snow in two places since early December. For those who think that Normie is away with the fairies- Google Traffic Scotland for the webcams!
What is less known is that Germany, France and Spain are also being clobbered. The Mistral is howling down the Rhone Valley and the Tramontana is hitting central Spain. Germany has had up to 155mph recorded gusts.
The guy at Hamburg doing the 'Light Fantastic' was only a modest part of a whole scenario. People with nothing more than trying to get their balls in their pockets and with a complete lack of knowledge have been joined by people who think that 'pant ****ting' is the latest craze.
I am sorry, old son, but they cried their sodden eyes out when hit by their own disasters.
Today, whether we like it or not are having have pilots who are going to have to do this like regular military pilots who go out in any sort of weather, day and night- for these so called critics.

It's bit like a car crash, these people crowd around some poor sod and haven't a constructive bit of help.

Whether I have upset their poor little miserable kives means precisely nothing to mean. 134 lives and those of the crew does. This was professionalism of the highest order.

Cheers

N

[juergenwt]

Pilot

The Copilot was flying the plane on landing. From what I understand is that pilots train for these side wind landings and they are considered routine.
What happened here is that at the last second just before touchdown the plane got hit by a strong wind gust on its starboard side. This is what pushed the plane to the left and had the wing touch the runway.
The pilot took over from the copilot, pushed the throttle forward and the plane became airborne again. Also a fairly routine maneuver and practiced again and again. He finally landed on another runway.
Still pretty scary and if the gust of wind would have been slightly higher it could have been very bad.
By the way - the copilot in control of the plane was a 24 year old woman.
I am sure she will remember this flight for a long time.
I am not a pilot. What I am telling you is what I read in the German press.
juergenwt