Close call

An impressive piece of flying by this Lufthansa pilot.

Bet the stewardesses had a fair old mess to clean up after the plane finally landed.

BBC News Video

How much can an airliners computer handle things like that... is it capable of landing the plane in those kinds of conditions or is it a manual thing only, regardless?

close call!

Mat said:

How much can an airliners computer handle things like that... is it capable of landing the plane in those kinds of conditions or is it a manual thing only, regardless?

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What do you mean?? No aircraft (that i am aware of) can land itself. I beleive some tests were done, but they resulted in a very bent aircraft overshooting by a rather larger amount

Its a manual process.

OMG

I'd crap myself...

I thought you got unmanned flights? How the hell do they land MV?

Airline Jets can land themselves.

Most of the time it's used in poor visibility when it poses a danger if the crew can't see the runway from a reasonable distance. You wouldn't want a computer trying to calculate millions of calculations each second on the aircraft when the nature of the wind would simply undermine the whole process.

Small light aircraft like Cessna's can't autoland.

I was going to say, reacting to that wind in something that large must have been like fighting a bear!

Blimey
Some serious skills there by the pilot.

I bet that resulted in some massive skid marks.

Haiku said:

I bet that resulted in some massive skid marks.

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.....

It's amazing to see something that big and powerful get so easily pushed around by the wind.

Malt_Vinegar said:

What do you mean?? No aircraft (that i am aware of) can land itself. I beleive some tests were done, but they resulted in a very bent aircraft overshooting by a rather larger amount

Its a manual process.

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Most new airliners today equipped with CAT IIIB/C ILS equipment can land at an airfield with an apropriately rated ILS using autoland. A full autoland can be performed by a CAT IIIB equiped aircraft where the aircraft touches down itself. A CAT IIIC equipped aircraft can land, slow the aircraft down and taxi off the runway without pilot intervention. I have flown them in the BA 777 simulator and it's bloody scary. The decision height for the CAT IIIB is 50ft which is pretty much a few seconds before you touch down


As for the Lufty pilot, that was a stunning recovery. Had he not went around that would have almost certainly ended in disaster.

That's how you land at Kowloon!

I didn't even look as if it landed.

Would it be possible to go closer than that without a disaster?

When the wing tip ducks down it seems very very close to the ground - so much so that bugs wants a refund on his haircut.

ScarySquirrel said:

I didn't even look as if it landed.

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Well no, it didn't. But at least in Kowloon the plane takes a similar path, albeit intentionally.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8pIVjKoUewc&feature=related

EDIT: Actually, I mean Kai Tak.

Haiku said:

I bet that resulted in some massive skid marks.

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That took me two reads to realise.

I fail.

Haiku said:

I bet that resulted in some massive skid marks.

Click to expand...

Scuzi said:

Most new airliners today equipped with CAT IIIB/C ILS equipment can land at an airfield with an apropriately rated ILS using autoland. A full autoland can be performed by a CAT IIIB equiped aircraft where the aircraft touches down itself. A CAT IIIC equipped aircraft can land, slow the aircraft down and taxi off the runway without pilot intervention. I have flown them in the BA 777 simulator and it's bloody scary. The decision height for the CAT IIIB is 50ft which is pretty much a few seconds before you touch down

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I stand corrected Cool stuff

Pilots rock.