An inch is as good as a mile?

[jinman]

I have a co-worker who is a retired American Airlines pilot and he sent me these photos of a 747 landing on a very, very narrow strip. Here is the description of the attached photos in this and the following message attachements.

They say the importance of landing on centerline cannot be
underestimated. Most of us NEED a 150' or 200' wide strip. Makes us
feel, well, comfortable. Here are 3 actual shots, I'm told, showing a
more than "fairly impressive" landing. Musta been a no wind
condition. One of SAA's first B-747s retiring to Rand Airport, South
Africa elevation 5568 feet with 4898 long x 50 feet wide runway!) The
747-100 outer-to-outer main gear tire width is 41.33 ft. Empty aircraft
Vref was 115 kts! The guy needed to be right-on-center-line. They say
an inch is as good as a mile and most of us will take what we get ...
but, I say, THE MORE THE MERRIER.

Approach

 

[jinman]

Touchdown

YAHOO! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[jinman]

Piece of cake! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[JerryG]

Looks to be some very good pilots. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[GerardC]

Jinman:

Might you know why the planes are always angled just before touch down? Gerard

 

[markie61]

I'm sure it is an optical illusion, but the first photo almost looks like he is landing on the main road that runs into town....

Mark

 

[Tdog]

I suspect he is angled because of a crosswind. Pilots 'crab' into the wind in order to maintain flight in a given direction - - so that his gound tract lines up with the runway. If he aimed/looked directly down the runway with a crosswind, the wind would blow him off the centerline.
At least, that's the way it works with Cessnas.

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

During the development of the 747 (late 60's) they trained pilots with the flight deck mounted on the back of a flat ed truck running up and down the runway at Boeing Field in Seattle. The view angle of the runway from the flight deck was a strong concern.

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Might you know why the planes are always angled just before touch down? )</font>

I think Tdog has it right. Since airplanes steer with the rudder all the way on the back of the vertical stabilizer, any final correction on short final will cause slight crabbing. Even a ground vehicle that steers with the rear wheels would give the same visual effect if you were viewing it from the front. At touchdown, the rudder is still used until the nose wheel touches down. Then it's normally full lift dump as you can see by the flaps, ground spoilers, and leading edge slats on the 747. Additionally, thrust reversers are deployed until the speed comes down to about 70 knots and then brakes are applied. About that time, nosewheel steering is then used to steer the airplane and it begins to drive like a car. Doing all those things while not running off this airstrip is one heck of a piece of work. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[thcri]

I always wondered about the cross winds and coming down at an angle. Being in some small planes and landing in a crosswinds a few times scared the living daylights out of me.

/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

murph