Hard landing: How hard is hard?

[English]

My old airplane was totalled due to a hard landing. Rookie in a Hawk XP flaring 10 feet high. The Hawk XP has a heavy nose, similar to the 182.


http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=LAX04CA219&rpt=fa

 

[Lear2460]

It was a hard landing, when one of the passengers comes up to you before exiting the aircraft and says "Hey man, I heard that dog you killed back there". I cracked up when I heard that.

 

[Mr. Cole]

Although I'm ashamed to admit it, I had to go around not once, but three times yesterday when my attempts at wheel landings in the SD were a little more "solid" than necessary. Finally managed to get it down on the fourth attempt.

Dave

 

[ackattacker]

Firewall damage during landing is common on 182's and 172's to a somewhat lesser extent... usually a result of porpoising. Sometimes the damage is not obvious, I've seen it go till 100 hour to get caught. You're usually given two bounces, the third one will do the nosewheel in and probably get the prop also. You probably could drop a 172 from fifteen feet... on the mains. But that nosewheel is weak weak weak.

I knew a guy who punched the main strut of an Arrow through the top of the wing in a gusty crosswind and didn't realize it - went around and retracted the gear. Then of course the gear wouldn't come down - DOH!

 

[TDTURBO]

I was coming into an airport in Kentucky, had a perfectly stabilized approach and about 30 ft above the runway I am hit with a downdraft from hell. I slammed it on the mains so hard that paint was missing where the gear comes out of the aiframe. It was in a 182rg. The only reason I didn't hurt anything is because I hit only on the mains and on the inevitable bounce up, I jammed in the throttle and flew it on the runway. Weird how winds can f*ck with you out of nowhere. The airplane was check thoroughly and no damage, I am convinced that if you keep them on the mains and avoid a nose wheel hit, they will sustain a hell of a beating.

 

[GravityHater]

I've seen it go till 100 hour to get caught.

I've seen it be undiscovered until the next (or later) prebuy inspection too!

My worst landing was my private checkride BOING!! saved a short field 'crash' by going around. Should've failed me for cracking under pressure if not the bad arrival.

 

[EOpilot]

I hear that 727's are hard to consistently make good landings in. Can anyone with som experience in them share some stories or theories?

True. The 727 is challenging to land smoothly. Many say it's because of the location of the landing gear in relation to the CG, especially in the -200 series. That's a bunch of garbage, though. Many aircraft have wheels as far from the CG as the 727.

Really the challenge comes due to the fact that the tail is HIGHLY loaded in the landing configuration. This loading is felt as additional apparent weight since the tail is loaded with downforce. In a flare, the downforce is increased, increasing the apparent weight. Timed just wrong, the flare actually drives the aircraft into the runway even harder than if not flared at all. Timed just right, (and without touching the throttles until 10'), one can "roll it on" by derotating just slightly prior to wheels down, thereby decreasing the downforce of the tail, reducing the apparent weight, and temporarily slowing the rate of descent.

That's all for EOpilot's groundschool for today. Tune in next week when I'll be going over digital cable troubleshooting from my Comcast van.

Ugh.