Aborted Landings at Birmingham Airport, UK

If you're sitting in a right side window seat, you are probably wondering what the pilot is looking at, and why the plane isn't pointed at the runway.

Been there, done that. The plane broke out of the clouds going into Reagan National and the touchdown patch was already behind us, all the seasoned passengers knew the pilot screwed up, we just wondered when he was going to go full throttle up. That's when I learned how much reserve power there is in those 737 engines! Uneventful landing the second go around.

I was on a plane landing at Newark (NJ) airport once. As I looked out the window it seemed to me that we were unusually close to the hangars alongside the runway. Then at about 50 feet off the ground the pilot gave it full throttle and aborted the landing. When we cycled back around it was pretty obvious he'd been trying to land on the taxiway.

You might have almost landed on the adjacent NJ turnpike. That's almost happened more than once on a low visibility day.

Good cross wind landings are really not an issue with aircraft. Every aircraft has a max crosswind component that has been demonstrated at certification. Above these numbers and you can not control the aircraft. Pilots are therefore the next issue in the equation. I once had a student that I was instructing crosswinds to. Nice 90 deg wind at the max component for that aircraft. All was good at touch down till the mains hit the section of clear ice and we weather vaned into the wind. Full power and round the patch we went. Nice to have 9000 foot runway and operating a C-150 off it. Wide enough to land side ways, LOL. But you get my point. Your skill and aircraft determine the amount of cross wind your aircraft will handle. The plane itself does not care about the wind speed or direction.

Fixitorelse

"Good cross wind landings are really not an issue with aircraft."

What yaw angle do you find acceptable, considering what we have seen happen to aircraft attempting to land at more than 20Deg yaw? What happens when a wheel hits the tarmac much adrift of the vehicle's direction of travel? Something keeps digging me sharply in the side, reminding me something about the laws of physics!

I am not a huge fan of any laws, or anything that is imposed on us by others. So let's not invoke the laws of physics. Let's just talk about the totally practical, what should be obvious even to a non-engineer. If a vehicle attempts to land with the wheels pointing sideways, it will not land smoothly, it will tip over. It is not rocket science. Not only is it obvious, we have already seen it happen.

Anyone who says "Good cross wind landings are really not an issue with aircraft." is at the same time "stating the bleeding obvious" and being very stupid. Yes, aircraft deal with cross-winds all the time, I see it almost every week. But what happens when you get extreme cross winds? I have seen these too. To say it is "really not an issue" indicates someone who has either not experienced extreme cross-winds especially on landing, or who is extremely stupid.

I would like to know the name of this guy, just to be sure he is not piloting any aircraft I might be flying in.

13000 hours in the air and untold cross wind landings in 160 different types of aircraft. It does make me a little more knowledgeable then the average persons on this site. Having said that, aircraft are tested to a maximum cross wind component. Like everything, exceed the design and bad things happen.

I was on a 737 flying into Ketchican. It seemed like we were coming steep. I saw this little runway on the side of the hill. We hit hard in the first fifty feet of the runway. We bounced once. When the wheels hit the second time the reverse thrust and the brakes were full on. We could feel the plane shuddering and shaking as the pilot brought it to a stop. Then he had to taxi back to the other end of the runway and go down a ramp to a building that looked more like a Greyhound bus depot.

It all depends on the design limitations of the aircraft and the pilot's skill. The B52 undercarriage was designed for some extreme wheel steering capability. The crab landing capability of this plane in a crosswind still impresses me.