On leaving the plane I always thank the pilot for the landing.

And we do appreciate that!

We joke about it though, one popular joke goes something like this, "Anyone can Fly, you aren't paying me for the flight, you are paying me for the safe landing at the end."

Then there's the guy (it might be Charlie Sheen tomorrow!) who jumps off the 80th floor of a sky scraper, for 79 floors he thinks he can fly, it's the sudden stop at the bottom that will ruin your day.

Remember the line from the movie Toy Story, when Woody says to Buzz Lightyear, "That's not flying, that's falling, with style."

Nobody worries about the take off, or cruise, it's the landings that count. You want to be able to log just as many "landings" as takeoffs, any landing you can walk away from is considered a good one.


Way back when I went through USAF Pilot Training, I had to fly a low-level mission with a Lt. Col. instructor who had been an A10 pilot (the A10 only does low level bombing missions) and so he says to me, "OK, before we go fly, tell me, what is the Threat today?"

I think about this for a minute and I say, "Well, we will be going 500 mph only 500 feet off the ground, so I guess if we hit a buzzard we are toast, Buzzards are a threat."

He says, "No, what is the Threat?!"

I think for another minute and say, "Well, we will be in uncontrolled airspace, down low, I guess some idiot in a Cessna could be out there and we might hit him."

He says, "NO! WHAT IS THE THREAT??!!"

I'm lost, so I say, "I don't know, what else is there in West Texas?"

He says, "The GROUND! The GROUND is ALWAYS the THREAT!! DON'T HIT THE GROUND!!"

True enough. Going 500 mph at 500 feet in the hills of west Texas, it only takes about 2 seconds looking down at your chart to go from being a hero to a smoking hole. The Air Force has lost plenty of pilots on training missions who flew a good jet into the ground while being distracted by something else.


All you pilot wannabee's remember this; Gravity's a bitch, don't hit the ground.

;^)

Know what a good landing is? One you can walk away from
Know what a great landing is? One where the plane can actually fly again.


I remember my dad telling me about holding short of another taxiway at Narita and watching another plane coming in to land. I don't remember what the equipment was, but it landed so hard that there was fuel leaking out of the wings. Not cool. lol

Probably an MD-11! Or as we used to call them, the MD 911. As in, call the ambulance!

Here's the Fed Ex MD11 crash in Tokyo. I flew copilot on it to Europe and Tokyo for 4 years at Delta, never did like it. Nobody I knew did. Some airplanes make you "work" harder than others, the MD911 was one. The joke was, "Boeing builds airplanes, Micky D's (McDonald Douglas) build's character."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8OW4y3HC44&feature=watch_response_rev

I just found a "good" crosswind landing video.

As I described above, he's holding a pretty good crab into the wind (30 degrees or so) until he gets pretty low, then kicks the rudder to bring the nose around to align the airframe and wheels with the runway, then puts it down, nicely done.

This is what it is supposed to look like, and in a MD 11, it's not easy! Kudos to the KLM boys!

Wouter, one of those guys sails Kites at your club, right? Tell him I said Hi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFloyyEBblQ&feature=related

And, just to prove it CAN be done in an Airbus, here's a good crosswind landing, by one of Karl's Dad's friends, I'm sure! Watch how as he kicks the rudder he also lowers the upwind wing to slip into the wind (right wing down, in this case and same with the MD 11 above) to hold the airplane on centerline as he -gently- puts the gear on the runway. It's a coordinated move, about all 3 axis' and you have to play the power too. Right amount of rudder and wing down and pitch up to flare and touch down...gently, on speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEo6LWCi6fg&feature=related

See, it can be done, even in an Airbus, buy like everything else, you have to practice, and not rely on the autopilot to do it for you, because the autopilot can't be trusted. That's why they put not one, but two pilots up there.

I want to say it was a four engine turbo prop. Don't remember for sure, and that could be about anything.

I used to live not too far from the Minneapolis airport, and would get gas right of the end of one of the runways and watch planes come in. It was always worthwhile when the weather was rough. NWA used to have a whole mess of 727's, they always seemed to have the most trouble. Dad always said it wasn't a question of if, it was when with that plane, but he must have liked it. I think he flew it for 18 years. After that it was a couple in the DC10, then the 747 till he retired. I wish I would've asked him what he started out on. I knew he built up his hours crop dusting.

Whats the difference between a MD11 and the DC10?

From a distance there isn't much difference. Same wing, same fuselage, 3 engines, etc.

The MD11 was Micky D's answer to high fuel prices in the late 1980's, early 1990's. Rather than spend the money to design, build and certify a "new" airplane, from scratch, they took the DC10 and "Modified" it. That included adding all the Computers for navigation and they eliminated the Flight Engineer possition by adding more computers to run the Hydrolic, Fuel, Pneumatic and Electrical systems, as well as checklists for abnormal ops.

They hung new engines on it, added those funky wingtips to reduce drag, added bigger fuel tanks and a center landing gear for the increased gross wt. They tried to do it on the Cheap and it was kind of a mess, a mix of old and new, a compromise, not a real solution and it was a pig when you flew it heavy, same wing as a DC10 but they added 100,000lbs. to the max takeoff wt.

They did the same thing with the DC9; put Flight Management System (FMS) computers in it and new engines, called it the MD80 series. I flew the MD88 for a year, it was a mess too, you could never take your eye off it, you never knew what it was going to do next!

The MD 11 had pretty long range (16+ hours with aux. fuel tanks in the cargo hold) but it did not meet the "fuel burn" numbers MD had promised to American, Delta and Swiss Air, who were the first customers. There were lawsuits over who would pay for the extra fuel, etc. I think American Airlines got some money out of them.

Long story short, they are mostly freighters now that the 777 has come along. Boeing bought McDonald Douglas years ago and pretty much killed off the MD 11 production line.

The DC10 was a great airplane in it's day, as was the DC9, and the 727, but it was a "Different Time" ie. fuel was a lot cheaper back in the 1970's! As the price of fuel went up, demand for more fuel efficient airplanes drove those older airplanes out of existance.

Everyone loved the 727, I only got to fly copilot on it for about 2 years, then I went to the 757/767, but it was a lot of fun to fly. The autopilot sucked, so you HAD to hand fly it a lot, which I loved. When I got on the MD11, I would hand fly it a lot too, but some of the Captains didn't like me to do that.

One Capt. said to me, when I clicked off the autopilot and auto-throttles, "You realize you have just removed two layers of Safety?!"

I said, "Yeah, well, I'm just going to pretend it's an airplane, and pretend I'm a Pilot, and I'm just going to fly it..." so you KNOW I had to grease it on or suffer the wrath. Luckily the wind was calm and it was a good landing, so good some of the Flight Attendants came up to the **** and asked, "Who made that landing, that was Great!"

Of course I've had a few go -not so smooth- too, but it's nice when you really -need- to get a good one, and you do!

Who do you have lined up for GYC Saturday?

Um...nobody?

I was thinking of taking my son but if no other spin boats are going...?

Where's Terry been?

I spoke with Terry last weekend. He is planning to be there. Beth and I will be there. I believe that Robbie will be sailing with Zach there this weekend. Possibly Cheryl and Tina on an F-18. Weather permitting, Ding may show....so there will be a few spin boats.

Okay, count me in.

Thanks Karl.

Don't blame me if they don't show. It's just what I have heard from talking with various people. I can only say for sure that I will be there. Hell.....It's gonna be a nice day. Why not go sailing?????

It is March. If it's blowin' stink I'll weinie out at the last minute.

Forecast looks like it will get the Pete stamp of approval.

Gettin' old is a bitch.

It's blowin' nice out there today!

Whitecaps all across the lake! It will probably die down by Saturday though, I just hope it's not a drifter, I hate light air! http://www.bcbaywatch.com/

We'll do !

Actually, we got a couple of airline pilots at our club come to think of it.

Wouter