Question for the Airbus drivers

[AKAAB]

As I've told the passengers in the past - even Tiger Woods misses a putt once in a while.

Longhorn is too hard on himself. He got more compliments for a grade-2 plopper the other day than he got when he greased it. Go figure.

Also, if he'd stop humming the Aggie fight song during his landings, he might do better.

 

[Longhorn]

Aggie fight song? Oh no.....wrong school...UT...Longhorns

You disappeared the other day. I guess you were on bus 2. Once second you were there and the next you were gone.

 

[aa73]

Don't feel bad folks... After 3500+ hrs on the -80, I just created another runway dip in LGA the other night while landing on 4 after a flawlessly smooth approach, the lead F/A had to dig the landing gear out of her a$$ when we blocked in at the gate.

No matter how much experience, landing the -80 makes a pilot look like a novice every so often.

I agree, the 320 series seems to get pretty consistent good landings. The 737-800 seems to have pretty stiff main ldg gear and is pretty unforgiving with even a little crab angle.

Watch out for the new bump on your next takeoff roll on Rwy 4, it is right around the 500ft marker....

73

 

[UAL'01]

You put the the nosegear at the 500 ft marker? No wonder that one was a bad one. Must have used a lot of power to taxi without the main gear...just kidding...

 

[Bringupthebird]

There is not one-size-fits-all landing technique for the bus. When it's cool (below 100 F) you can pull the power off at 50' and make pretty good landings. High temps or really low weights (I can't explain that one) require the power to be held in there for a little longer. How much longer? Well to answer that you have to buy my DVD- "I Don't Know, But It's Doing It Again"

 

[727RedTails]

I will agree with BringuptheBird's assesment.

AnimalTale, the ladies always did say you greased them in the J32.

 

[starchkr]

Landings huh...well my first few were pretty bad...I think it had to do with the whole landing with my a$$ 5' off the ground for 5 years and then having to learn that to land this plane smoothly you need to actually flare at least 25' higher...lets just say the first few times i was looking for the old learjet sight picture and forgot about the Airbus sight picture...yeah, that equals no flare for landing, talk about testing the gear and runway strength...the worst part was i had to fly with the same F/A crew for that four day trip and i got razz'd for the entire trip.

 

[Eaglepuke]

My best landings are the ones I put no effort into. If I try to grease it, it won't happen. If I do get a greaser, I can rarely look back and remember how I did it. I guess I fly best when in a spaced out trance.

 

[Capn Mike]

It's called autoland!

Just kidding busdrivers:laugh:

Actually the autolands are quite firm at times.

Have you noticed how sometimes you will grease one on and get no comments from the pax and other times you will think you banged it on and get the compliments. Maybe they are just being sarcastic.

Mike

 

[Thedude]

The 737 is by far the easiest plane to get a good landing out of, just like the days of the C-172. Now, the B-727 is another story...

Come on...the 727 isn't that hard to land....well maybe from the panel

 

[geshields]

Come on...the 727 isn't that hard to land....well maybe from the panel

LOL...it just takes some time to get used to landing it. It is just not a natural instinct to push the nose over to get a good landing out of it. Same as the MD-80 types...

 

[AnimalTale]

I will agree with BringuptheBird's assesment.

AnimalTale, the ladies always did say you greased them in the J32.

Now that was a GREAT airplane! I miss her!

Cya

 

[geshields]

Now that was a GREAT airplane! I miss her!

Cya

The Wiggle Pig!!

 

[AlbieF15]

Try this...

At 100' foot call chop power to idle...

Push nose down 5 degrees below current setting....

At 30, 20 call aggressively bring nose up to take VVI to 200 pfm....

(I've never flown an Airbus, but I once stayed in a Holiday Inn Express. I just love to pretend to be an expert at things I've NEVER done like 95.5% of the folks on this board..)

No really..don't try this...

 

[ATRedneck]

As I've told the passengers in the past - even Tiger Woods misses a putt once in a while.

I just tell them that flying is like pimpin'. If it was easy, everybody'd be doing it.

imp:

 

[Gorilla]

The 738 is down the list a bit as far as ease of landing. Going from widebody to 738 was evil, as there is a tendency to get ground rush and flare high. Then, BAM! the jet stops flying and drops in.

If I were to rank the AC I've flown from easiest to hardest, it'd look like this, FWIW.

777: by far the sweetest; the triple truck absorbs a lot of energy and smooths things out.
757: cake
S-80: once you figure it out, consistency is pretty easy
MD-11: Not as bad as some guys say.
767-300: Not my favorite
767-200: Yuck
737-800: Speed is life, except at Burbank, LaGuardia, CZM, etc.

 

[aa73]

S-80: once you figure it out, consistency is pretty easy

Well, I've figured that out already - my bad landings are consistent!

 

[Groucho]

One item not mentioned here is that the flight control laws on the Bus are different from normal aircraft in one important respect. That is that the motion of the side stick is a rate command not a flight control position command. A specific degree and rate of movement of the sidestick produces the same aircraft reaction regardless of aircraft speed.

This makes hunting for the ground easier. You don't need larger and larger inputs as the aircraft slows. Very small inputs will produce the same results even as the aircraft is slowing. The flight controls, ie elevator, ailerons, will move at greater and greater deflections to produce the desired attitude change with the same relative side stick input.

If you keep this little item in mind it makes landings easier, in my humble opnion.

 

[Patriot328]

One item not mentioned here is that the flight control laws on the Bus are different from normal aircraft in one important respect. That is that the motion of the side stick is a rate command not a flight control position command. A specific degree and rate of movement of the sidestick produces the same aircraft reaction regardless of aircraft speed.

This makes hunting for the ground easier. You don't need larger and larger inputs as the aircraft slows. Very small inputs will produce the same results even as the aircraft is slowing. The flight controls, ie elevator, ailerons, will move at greater and greater deflections to produce the desired attitude change with the same relative side stick input.

If you keep this little item in mind it makes landings easier, in my humble opnion.

that's not entirely true, the elevator goes into direct law starting at a certain height agl (hence the reason losing both RAs is a big deal.. the plane goes into direct law when you drop the gear). As the plane slows, you will have to add more back elevator to keep the same pitch.

 

[Bringupthebird]

Actually it's called Flare Mode and it memorizes the pitch attitude at about 50' and begins to input a nose-down bias so that you'll have to apply some aft stick to flare.

You really don't want to start putting in progressively larger stick inputs (known as Stirring the Paint). You do want to have some thrust in at 50' just so you know what you've got. It's easy to get high and with Autothrust active and end up with idle thrust all the way down. You can get some interesting sink rates if you let it go unstable below 500' and striking the tail is a real possibility. Since the trust levers don't move, it's up to you to know where the power's at.