Amazing....

[Smiffy]

I love aircraft. Quite happily spend all day watching them coming and going at a big airport.
I understand all about flight dynamics, but it never ceases to amaze me how 600 tonnes of Airbus A380 can just hang in the sky.... superb landing in really testing conditions. Those pilots earn every penny of their salaries.

 

[Imurg]

That takes real skill and rock hard balls of steel.....

 

[Smiffy]

That takes real skill and rock hard balls of steel.....

You wouldn't have spilled a drop when that touched down.
Absolutely superb skills.

 

[Billysboots]

Makes me nervous just watching. I’m not a great flier ?

 

[GreiginFife]

No doubting they are incredible at what they do, especially the ones that get to fly the A380s, different breed.

 

[Swinglowandslow]

That is some landing. Because of high crosswinds, it would have been a hand flown landing.
In normal conditions airliners land using ILS. That is nice and easy for the pilot.
A googl check gives an idea when manual landings must be used
This from an airline pilot.
"When the winds exceed the airplane's autoland limitations, it must be hand-flown. The airplane's crosswind limitations ordinarily exceed the autoland limitations by a good stretch"

 

[Jimaroid]

Autoland and ILS aren't the same thing. ILS tells you where the runway is, autoland puts you on the ground. The landings in the videos will still have used ILS for approach, the pilot has to decide by around 200 feet altitude whether the ILS has missed approach and they need to abort and go around.

Autoland is only used in extremely poor visibility when there's a risk that the runway isn't visible to the pilot for landing, e.g., very dense fog.

A380's are fascinating but pilots can't fly them without computers. It's impressive/scary depending on your point of view.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

The wonders of modern technology and added skill - the level of technology on those planes makes it possible for the pilots to land the planes in those conditions , along with all the other outside airfield technology as well.

Some of the best ones are on helo’s into some secluded coves or landing on beaches in smaller aircraft

 

[GreiginFife]

Autoland and ILS aren't the same thing. ILS tells you where the runway is, autoland puts you on the ground. The landings in the videos will still have used ILS for approach, the pilot has to decide by around 200 feet altitude whether the ILS has missed approach and they need to abort and go around.

Autoland is only used in extremely poor visibility when there's a risk that the runway isn't visible to the pilot for landing, e.g., very dense fog.

A380's are fascinating but pilots can't fly them without computers. It's impressive/scary depending on your point of view.

That as may be Jim, but in those winds not sure my white trousers would stay white with just a computer at the helm.
That second pilot had balls of platinum, let alone steel.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Some very knowledgeable posters here.
Could one of you tell me please.
Are these A380s very forgiving and easy to play with given all the technology that's gone into them?
Were the WW2 Lancaster pilots more skilful than today's passenger airline pilots?

 

[Jimaroid]

That as may be Jim, but in those winds not sure my white trousers would stay white with just a computer at the helm.
That second pilot had balls of platinum, let alone steel.

I wasn't meaning to undervalue the pilot's brass in any way. Pilots get us on the ground. Computers keep us in the air. I wouldn't want it any other way.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Some very knowledgeable posters here.
Could one of you tell me please.
Are these A380s very forgiving and easy to play with given all the technology that's gone into them?
Were the WW2 Lancaster pilots more skilful than today's passenger airline pilots?

It’s a different skill - modern day pilots are still very skillful but nothing imo will compare to pilots of the BoB aircraft and even up to modern jets

Was lucky enough to fly in the Lancaster and the amount of work they put in to keep it up is amazing , they are physical shattered when they finish the flight

 

[Foxholer]

Pilots are likely the most laid back folk in stressful situations. My ex-FIL was a commercial pilot (had several Cessnas and 'ran' mail and passengers to some 'out of the way' places) for many years and had a few 'interesting' stories. It was 'entertaining' to watch planes landing at Wellington airport in a 'decent' breeze - on our way to the pub at Greta Point for Sunday supper.
Coincidentally, I just watched (last night) the story of BA009 that flew through a volcanic ash cloud...scary stuff but with a safe result.

 

[Rooter]

Autoland is only used in extremely poor visibility when there's a risk that the runway isn't visible to the pilot for landing, e.g., very dense fog.

Eg. Luxembourg! LOL According to local legend, Nazi invaders forced the locals to build it up for the Luftwaffe, so they gave them Findel. According to the stories, about 33% of german fighters crash landed due to its microclimate being in heavy fog for much of the time. (There may be poetic licence in this story from the local that told me, but I love it!)

Now BA will only use planes with Auto land.

 

[Deleted member 23270]

As scary as those films are, aviation laws are incredibly strict and if it isn't safe to land then they don't. I've been on a few knuckle rides in my time and whilst I wouldn't wear Greig's white trousers the cabin crew haven't been fazed in the least. Only ever had 1 landing where the crew looked nervous.

 

[jim8flog]

It is all about getting all the passengers to jump in to the air at the right moment.

 

[SaintHacker]

The ILS transmits a beam which the aircraft radios can be tuned to, this provides a visual aid on the pilots instruments showing lateral and vertical guidance to the runway. THe autopilot can be programmed to fly down this beam, an then the aircraft can land itself if visibility is below specified levels. Not all airports are ILS, some may have it only one end of the runway. Obviously without an ILS a plane cannot carry out an autoland, so its a diversion if weather is too bad.
Pilots will land manually 99% of the time, however leagally they have to carry out an autoland (once a month or so) to keep themselves and the aircraft current.
Whilst most modern airliners can happily land theselves in zero visibility, an aircraft may still be required to divert if RVR (Runway Visual Range) is too low as ridiculously the pilot won't be able to see enough to taxi safely to the stand!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Once upon a day job a long time ago I was in a small group of Guidance, Control and Navigation System Engineers (cool job title eh!) that designed, amongst other dead clever stuff, aircraft Terrain Avoidance systems…what’s one of those you might ask….errr ??

 

[Swango1980]

I love aircraft. Quite happily spend all day watching them coming and going at a big airport.
I understand all about flight dynamics, but it never ceases to amaze me how 600 tonnes of Airbus A380 can just hang in the sky.... superb landing in really testing conditions. Those pilots earn every penny of their salaries.

The landing looks dramatic, but I seriously hope it is a very easy landing for any pilot of such a plane. If not, I'd like to ask why they are trying to land it at all? If it was a difficult landing, I'm sure we'd have many planes crash landing every day, as I'm sure there are many daily landings in strong wind around the world.

 

[Smiffy]

The landing looks dramatic, but I seriously hope it is a very easy landing for any pilot of such a plane. If not, I'd like to ask why they are trying to land it at all? If it was a difficult landing, I'm sure we'd have many planes crash landing every day, as I'm sure there are many daily landings in strong wind around the world.

I was more amazed at how 600 tonnes seem to hang there