TOP 15 Reasons for HARD LANDINGS! DON'T BLAME the first officer! Explained by CAPTAIN JOE

dear friends and followers welcome back to my channel and lovely greetings from the aerotask flight simulator here in munich germany in today's video we'll talk about something that's not such a pleasant topic hard landings we'll discuss what is considered a hard landing 15 possible reasons that could have been the cause for a hard landing and what you as a passenger shouldn't do experiencing a hard landing so brace yourself and let's get started so 5 24 it's the captain's last landing in the 76 and he's promised an absolute bruiser so i think we're going to need some scores from the sideline i'm sure many of you have been on flights where everything seems to be going smoothly and you are patiently waiting for the plane to land at your holiday destination you feel the plane descending and minutes later you look out the window and you see the runway coming closer and closer and suddenly bang the pilot just slammed the plane into the ground now people who have been sleeping the entire flight are now certainly awake but it feels like a crash landing hesitant or even no applause at all and you hear mumbling ooh must have been the co-pilot who landed a plane okay first off don't be that kind of passenger unless you can prove that you can do it better and secondly you don't know if it really was a hard landing or not so the first thing to clear out here what is a real hard landing now airplane manufacturers perform countless tests before their prototype plane is being certified and produced hard landing or drop tests are a standard for any type of plane what these tests simulate is the descent rate in feet per minute and the encounter g-force upon contact if a certain descent rate or a g-force have been exceeded the structural integrity of the plane might be compromised meaning a thorough inspection by maintenance has to check that certain structural areas such as the landing gear mounting points the wing spas the tail plane connectors etc haven't been torn bent or cracked after such an impact so when you see the plane you have derived in take off a few minutes later it hadn't had a hard landing otherwise a g-load report would get printed out or maintenance will call you and tell to step away from the plane it's aog for the next few days and to say it must have been the co-pilot who landed a plane might be one out of 15 reasons why you just experienced a harder landing than usual so here are the top 15 reasons for hard or let's say bumpy landings number 15 auto land landings auto lands can sometimes end up in harder landings than usual in very foggy conditions with visibility values lower than what is considered able to be flown manually pilots have to choose an autoland landing if their plane is equipped and certified for such an approach now the autopilot flies it purely by numbers and received signals from the ground which can lead to a shortened flare ending in a bumpy landing a mishap showing that the autopilot only flies by the received signals is the singapore airlines flight landing at munich airport where the pilot disconnected the autopilot too late after landing and the signal got disturbed by another plane leading to the triple 7 to swerve off the runway number 14 varying landing weight your first landing might be was close to the maximum landing weight and the next landing might be a nearly empty plane planes act completely different depending on their landing weight which might be misjudged by the pilot and ruining his flare number 13 different plane types some airline pilots are rated on multiple planes for example when i flew for air berlin i was rated on the airbus 1819 20 and 21 and some colleagues even flew the airbus ac30 all within one week sometimes you switch between different types of aircrafts in one day so each of them flare and obviously way differently and can be the cause for a bumpy landing again number 12 different engine types some airlines have an a20 as an example with i a e v 2 500 engines but in the same fleet others are fitted with cfm leap engines upon flare the engines react or spool up and down differently timely speaking which can lead to an unexpected long flare a sudden drop in air speed and bang your next hard landing number 11 density altitude when landing in los angeles for example with a 747 let's say you have a ground speed on approach of 150 knots times five equals 750 feet per minute of descent rate on a three degree glide slope let's say we fly the approach with the same landing weight into mexico city with an airport elevation of 7 300 feet the air density is much lower therefore your true air speed increases by two percent per 1000 feet means seven times two percent equals 14 percent so 150 knots times 1.14 equals 170 knots so 170 knots times five equals 850 feet per minute you're descending on the three degree glide slope so effectively 100 feet per minute more and 20 knots faster so if you don't anticipate the higher descent rate bang you're harder landing than usual the same applies for glide slopes which are steeper than normal which result in yet again a higher descent rate number 10 sloping runways landing on a down sloping runway you flare as usual but your plane isn't touching down because you are literally losing the runway under your tires at some point you drop down because you've powered back and the airspeed drops boom you're down even worse on up sloping runways the runway comes at you with a different angle and you plant the gear into the ground number nine wet runways this is a pilot induced positive landing and is expected to be flown so by the flight crew training manual now by performing a positive landing onto a water contaminated runway you literally push the water aside upon touchdown reducing the risk of hydroplaning i did a whole video on that so just click right here but funny fact is very often pilots make their best landings on wet runways although they should avoid greasing the wet runway ask any pilot he'll confirm that number eight daytime or night time landing now there is a big difference in landing a plane at night or during broad daylight now during a night landing you have a different visual perception of your descent rate speed and flare compared to a sunny day where visual clues help you anticipate things in advance number seven inoperative radio altimeter call outs you've all heard the 50 40 30 2010 call out well this is more or less a countdown and a great help for the pilots to anticipate when to break the descent rate and transition into the flare if the countdown is a little faster than usual you should immediately react as this is a clear sign for a too steep descent rate from time to time the radio altimeter can fail and you're missing your countdown also tricky when approaching the runway over a steep cliff the radio altimeter measures the height above ground meaning you could be 300 feet over water but after passing the cliff you're instantly at 50 feet above ground which can really put you off and may be the cause for another bump 200 140 30 20 now the three pilot induced errors number six the seating position try and park your car with the seat in the lowest position i promise you your previous accuracy is going to be completely off the same goes for the pilot seat they often come with visual aids to help you get into the right seating position for takeoff and landing if you're sitting too high you might flare too late if you're sitting too low you might flare too early a whole video on that topic is right here number five the chosen flap setting if you choose flaps 30 on a 747 as an example you come in with a shallower pitch attitude than choosing flaps 25 meaning your vertical speed and visual perception are yet again different which can mess up your flare if you don't correct for your chosen setting this is for example one of the primary reasons why flaps 30 should be selected for low visibility approaches to give the pilots a better viewing angle onto the leading in light at the point where they're supposed to look outside number four commitment to land after a go-around if a pilot needed to perform a go-around for whatever reason the immediate thought once the go around procedure is completed how much fuel do we have left hence time in the air a feeling of commitment arises i have to nail the next approach and landing otherwise we have to divert now this puts unwanted pressure onto the pilot flying who then can't be bothered about a soft landing anymore but rather make sure to put his plane to the ground number three and you might think this is a lame excuse fatigue fatigue is an ongoing problem in aviation after a 12 hour flight or four domestic legs the human body just starts to wear off and we lose our focus and concentration i have had colleagues say to me joe i am way too fatigued for this approach i've been up for more than 18 hours i want to perform an auto landing don't force yourself because you think you can still perform at 100 after a long day in the cockpit be smart about it and choose the safer option and no we cannot perform an autoland every time number two the unexperienced co-pilot as mentioned at the beginning this can also be a reason but i'll give you a very easy example how difficult it initially is for young unexperienced co-pilots to land a boeing 737 as an example you think you're amazing at parallel parking your car great you've done it a thousand times now try without any experience to parallel park a 40 ton truck with a massive trailer attached to it full of passengers in the pouring rain during the night i'll be gladly sitting on the curb and watch you fail the only thing i can say about that practice makes perfect and trust me after a few landings still get the hang of it and please spare me all the ryanair comments right now there's absolutely no need for that instead instead of commenting badly about ryanair click on the link in the description box below to order your captain joe 747-8 built by herper in the 1 to 2 200 size this plane only lands on your desk or shelf and finally number one and probably the primary cause for bumpy landings weather on approach and over the threshold variable winds which suddenly turn from a headwind to a tailwind in the last few feet you're in the air heavy rain showers low visibility turbulent winds created in between airport hangars crosswinds trailing wake turbulences wind shears thunderstorms in a vicinity thermals drifting snow blowing snow and many many more all of these can potentially put a pilot slightly off course of a great landing it's only a matter of a split second which can decide between a soft normal or a hard landing this list might be long but ninety percent of all the mentioned reasons are manageable with proper training gained experience sometimes a little luck and especially if you mentioned persisting threats and differences during your briefing mentally prepare yourself of what you could expect during the last few seconds before touching down a startle effect is the last thing you want sure the safe option is you can always go around even ask your colleague if he knows any hidden traps at that airport you're flying into and by the way how pilots should brief video right here and if after all you still bump your landing a bit debrief it with your captain once you've reached a parking gate it happens to everyone once in a while no matter how experienced you are nobody's perfect really applies when it comes to landings that's it for today i hope i've enlightened you a little bit with hard landings please don't always blame it on the pilot or the plane or the airline etc be aware the landing is the most challenging part for everybody involved and rather appreciate that you got to your destination fast and safely here's your checklist for today subscribe to my channel check activated notification belt check follow my instagram account check and perform a touch and go at my website check and don't forget a good pilot is always learning wishing you all the best your captain joe [Music]

Channel: Captain Joe

Views: 673,656

Keywords: TOP 15 HARD LANDING, Heavy landing, big plane landing, Captain Joe, Captain Joe flying, Captain Joe explains, landing compilation, airplane compilation, TOP 10 Landings, Airbus A380, A380 Landing, Boeing 747, B747, Antonov An225, The biggest plane in the world, Boeing 747 vs. Airbus A380, justplanes, airplanes only, aviation, planespotting, msfs2020, crash landing, autoland, flap setting, low visibility, fatigue, Ryanair hard landing, airplane tires, zfnhva, top 10, tech, airport

Id: NL0_bqh42rc

Length: 15min 11sec (911 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 21 2021