Almost graceful...

[PickleB]

Some of these are almost graceful...

...others just look scary!

[grey]

Some of these are almost graceful

...others just look scary!

Thanks for posting. I find most of these astonishingly reassuring (they scare the wits out of Mrs grey). The ones who decide to go around again after they have touched down scare me the most, but I expect they know best.

I have only experienced a few of the latter. The last one was at LBA when the captain of an elderly Dan Dare 748 made two goes at it and asked us 'Shall we have another go, or go to East Midlands instead?' Superb cheering PR, resulting in loads of encouraging shouts from the well-oiled pre-Christmas passengers, including an offer from a Harrogate councillor to switch the lights on on the Stray an attempt a landing there.

The bus trip back from East Mids was fab!

- - - Updated - - -

[Chinnock]

Flew into Thunder Bay a few years back and had the pleasure of viewing the runway head on through my passenger window until the final moment we touched down. Amazing skill from the pilot, memorable cold sweat for me!

[Papa Hotel]

Well, I didn't have a fear of flying until a few minutes ago.

I cannot believe how much they were moving around, even on the runway! Some serious skill on display from the pilots, hats off to them.

[PickleB]

It's not surprising when you see a wind rose for BHX:

And look at the map (weather station at X):

[Christian]

Yes, a lot goes on in the last few stages of an approach and often frustrating for a pilot that a good days work is mostly judged by the the last few seconds!

To give you an idea about landing a swept wing jet:

Generally, you look to be stabilised from 200ft on the glide path with powers set, attitude and rate of descent all stable. On a gusty crosswind day, you often find yourself fighting the speed and turbulent conditions. As you enter ground effect, there is a slight trim change and then the work starts at between 20 and 50ft as you 'present' the aircraft to the runway. On a crosswind day, you crab and have to 'kick' the drift off with the rudder. This causes a swept wing to rise (it is now travelling faster as a result of the yaw) and you have to simultaneously apply into-wind aileron. If you don't, you'll most likely strike the downwind flaps or pods. This is all a bit of a coordination dance that must be timed right otherwise you are now not crabbed and will start to drift towards the side of the runway!

I've often heard the phrase mentioned "we're all passengers at 20ft"!

[MerlinShepherd]

I flew from Luxembourg to London City a few years ago in a twin-prop. We were delayed by 6 hours due to a raging storm and the UK was hit when we landed. It was the most exhilarating landing I've ever experienced and I'm sure it resembled some of those on the vid. We were the first plane into City Airport and footage of the landing made BBC news.

Somehow we made our gig in Liverpool that evening. I asked from the stage whether anyone had seen the plane landing on the news. They had, I told them we were on it! They went wild!

[PickleB]

Thread revival.

He's getting even better at capturing the action. Ladies and gentlemen, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position, make sure your seat belt is securely fastened and all carry-on luggage is stowed underneath the seat in front of you or in the overhead bins, we will shortly be landing at Birmingham Airport...maybe.

[Onelasttime]

I know nothing about flying but the pilots must have amazing grace under pressure to be able to do that day in, day out. The passengers must be bricking it.

Quick question though, why is the runway a series of dips and bumps? Looks like madness to me but there must be a reason, presumably to assist speed reduction?

[PickleB]

I know nothing about flying but the pilots must have amazing grace under pressure to be able to do that day in, day out. The passengers must be bricking it.

Quick question though, why is the runway a series of dips and bumps? Looks like madness to me but there must be a reason, presumably to assist speed reduction?

I cannot say I really know the answer, but the telephoto lens is exaggerating the visual effect and making it look really bad. The airport has grown from a pre-WWII grass strip aerodrome to what it is today so I suppose that the runway length has been extended over the years. It may be unacceptable (finance or safety?) to put runways into cuttings or on an embankment, however slight...but I may be wrong.

[Tifa]

It's not surprising when you see a wind rose for BHX:

And look at the map (weather station at X):

Yes...you're right...especially when you consider the implications of the pizzo domino effect.

[grey]

Thanks for posting Bob, and of course to the photographer. As I said before on this thread, I find the clips very reassuring in terms of the qualities of both aeroplanes and their drivers.

The foreshortening effect of the telephoto lens can make runways look very irregular; similar clips of steam trains can make track look astonishingly badly laid, but that is all part of their charm.
g

[PickleB]

Time for one more...and this one made USA Today:

If you look as some of the others on that YouTube site I think that this pilot does exceptionally well. To my eyes, he doesn't align the aircraft itself with the runway until after the main undercarriage is on the ground. Others appear to do this just before touchdown and that allows the wind to destabilise their approach. But that may just be incidental...I'm in no way qualified to pass judgment.

[Mr.D]

The foreshortening effect of the telephoto lens can make runways look very irregular; similar clips of steam trains can make track look astonishingly badly laid, but that is all part of their charm.
g

Yeah the compression on a tight lens coupled with the shrunked field of view on the background often exagerates the movement of the foreground relative to it.

A 50mm ( nominal human magnification on a dslr) is going to look a lit less dramatic but you can’t get close enough with a nominal to wide lens to this sort of activity . I’ve had to explain to many film directors who don’t want to shoot off axis and tele that pilots will not let you put a whopping great camera slap bang in front of the plane when its landing or taking off.

Last time it was a Catalina with the director wanting 3 camera crew in the water in front of the plane , with the camera perched on top of a raft cobbled together from tyre inner tubes. So he could get a big wide shot of the aircraft taking off just over the camera. Hardly any margin for error if the plane failed to take off within that distance: and this was a seaplane trying to unstick itself from a water take off.

The crew were more than willing to try it bizarrely and stupidly enough and even tried to argue with the pilot who of course looked at them like they were crazy. Too much balls too little brain is very common on film shoots I’m afraid to say.

[Boss13]

Great thread! Love watching these kind of things.

[ralphy]

Funchal Airport on Madeira is renowned for missed approaches and go-arounds, a combination of challenging terrain (mountains on one side and the ocean on the other) plus strong and highly variable Atlantic winds. Pilots have to be specially trained and complete a number of landings with an experienced pilot before attempting it themselves.

Lots of videos on YouTube will attest to the difficulty of landing there.

R