Heavy landing in Airbus A320

[Ed]

I've just returned from a fantastic week in the Canary Islands and am properly sunburnt and extra fat. Anyway, as we flew back it was a seamless flight with beautiful views. The operator was First Choice and the plane an Airbus A320 which is a relatively small "3-aisle-3" jet.

As we head for London Gatwick and make the last turn for final approach the plane started to wobble so I assumed we had a stiff crosswind. The descent wasn't linear either, more yo-yo. We'd lose plenty of height then level, lose plenty more height then level. What with the wobble it was quite unnerving for the majority of the passengers and the cabin crew were doing their best to calm people.

Fortunately I could see clearly out of the window and also had the pleasure of watching the wing working away with flaps, ailerons and speed brakes going mental. As a keen learner pilot this was fun.

As soon as it looked like we were about 10 feet off the ground, the yo-yo effect kicked in and we started to lose height fast. We literally hit the tarmac with an almighty thump, more than any I can ever remember and with the wobble having sent us leaning to the left, that wheel touched down first.

So, we thumped hard into the tarmac and then the fun begins. Because the plane isn't correctly centrelined and we went left wheel first, the captain had plenty of correcting to do once all wheels were down. We snaked down the runway as reverse thrust kicked in and some people started to panic as it initially appeared that the captain wasn't going to be able to clean up the landing.

From midway down the plane you could see the front moving left and right as the captain was trying to steer the beast down the runway in the correct direction.

By far the worst landing I have ever experienced!

I also looked up about hard landings on these machines and it appears they can take up to 2g of force upon landing before checks are required for stress and damage.

Cool!!!!!!

 

[Ed]

By the sounds of it the may want to check some of the passengers undercarriage for stress or damage

There was a whiff from the rear.

 

[Ed]

As a keen pilot I'm confused that you didn't know that the 'captain' was probably doing very little and that the landing was probably more controlled by the planes landing systems.

as a keen learner pilot

I know the A320 is an advanced piece of kit with auto land facilities that control roll, pitch, yaw and trim but it felt too violent to be automated. I can't imagine any pilot letting the machine try and land it under such circumstances.

I remember coming in to Southampton once in a prop plane. As its a coastal approach, the warm air meeting cold air equals for some very entertaining moments prior to touching down.

We get this at Lydd quite often where the plane wants to shift to the right upon landing and it can catch out the sleepy.

 

[Ed]

Hey, a landing is a landing. You got on the ground and you didn't die. That's a good landing.

 

[Ed]

It sounds like you were a bit too cosy to a heavy in front.

Didn't think of that. I guess it would have made the air unstable enough to be a problem. The weather didn't seem that bad when I left the terminal.

 

[Ed]

Commercial pilots generally DON'T do this. Touching down one wheel then the other in a crosswind means that you are using the wing-down method to keep aligned with the runway. The very LAST thing you want to be doing with under-slung engines which only have a handful of feet clearance from the ground at the best of times is to lower one of the wings!!

As Scuzi says, I believe it to be wake turbulence that meant left touched first because the plane was leaning left then right then left... It didn't appear that it was a calculated move because of the crafts instability. As you say, in a crosswind crabbing is preferred for its consistency and level of control.

Awesome landing though. Not one I'd look forward to in the Piper.

Cause....

and effect.

I took that into consideration but thought otherwise. I only gained 10lbs in a week but there were some monstrously fat people on board. That's all-inclusive for you.

Whoa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RRpjzHGKZk

That was much smoother than I experienced on the Airbus.

 

[Ed]

It was definately shorter, was fierce braking and reverse thrust and we only just slowed down enough, landing back at LGW we had loads of runway left..

Not necessarily he/she may have slightly overshot the runway by floating a bit far meaning a heavier stop once the wheels were down. This would make it feel an awful lot shorter.

A similar landing was at Puerto Plata, Dom Rep in the Caribbean. We turned to final what I perceived to be a bit too close for comfort. Once we landed the reverse thrust must have been 100% because I was pinned to the seat belt like never before. Once we cleared the runway I had a good look out the window and there was precious little runway left.

 

[Ed]

Best landing I experienced was with Thompson. It was Palma in Majorca and we literally kissed the tarmac and rolled to a stop. Perfect. A similar landing occured in Bergamo, Milan with Ryanair a couple of years ago.