Great NG Cockpit Video

[steveeverson]

On The Wing

one of the best i've seen, some really great camera angles
Cheers
Steve

[Jetcos]

Nice find Steve!

[Nat Crea]

Unbloodyreal!

Nat

[MLeavy737]

I would hate to be in the back row of that airplane while the FO there is honking away on the pitch during that so called flare towards the end of the video!! Wow ?

Mike L

[727737Nut]

I would hate to be in the back row of that airplane while the FO there is honking away on the pitch during that so called flare towards the end of the video!! Wow ?

Mike L

I wondered about that myself!  Just didnt look right to me.

[Flyboyandre]

Yikes

[nicd]

cheers for the video.. very enjoyable!

i too wondered about all the pitch handling.. but wondered if he was struggling a bit to drop it through ground/thermal effect?

It's a fascinating thing though.. pilot's are so judged on the moment of touchdown. A Virgin Blue captain (in the sim) taught me never to flare anf float the 737 - apart from a 2 degree pitch up at 50ftRA, followed by idle throttle at 20ft and holding pitch till the mains touch. But a few years later a Qantas captain showed me how easy it would be in real life to get that wrong and seriously damage the tyres. So what gives?  Mike..?

[MLeavy737]

i too wondered about all the pitch handling.. but wondered if he was struggling a bit to drop it through ground/thermal effect?

It's a fascinating thing though.. pilot's are so judged on the moment of touchdown. A Virgin Blue captain (in the sim) taught me never to flare anf float the 737 - apart from a 2 degree pitch up at 50ftRA, followed by idle throttle at 20ft and holding pitch till the mains touch. But a few years later a Qantas captain showed me how easy it would be in real life to get that wrong and seriously damage the tyres. So what gives?  Mike..?

What he's doing there is nothing more than bad technique.  I know because thats exactly what i did on my first few 737 landings lol. Quickly corrected by my IOE instructor.  The reason i was doing that was because i didnt know where the wheels were yet on landing basically.  I call it fishing lol.  Your fishing for the ground waiting to touchdown. 

When you move the yoke like that on landing it you dont feel it that much from the cockpit as my IOE instructor said however you really feel in in the back! I can tell when im sitting in the back and someone is fishing lol. Up down up down up down then touchdown.. Annoying.

So finally after 6 years on the airplane i think i finally got it! Well it works for me anyhow.  So at about 75ft ill give a slight pull back just to get some positive feel and see how the airplane reacts.  I do that because the airplane is trimmed out and your just maintining heading and descent rate towards runway. I want to see or feel how the airplane will react when i go to flare.  Does it feel heavy or light or what? Also flying 5-6 different types of 737's they all handle a little different so this is just a conf. Builder. 

So from 50 on down its all one nice smooooth pullback and power reduction until your a few feet above runway then your letting some of that back pressure out.  Almost feels like your pushing forward but all your doing is relaxing back pressure.  Then on touch down your letting the yoke come forward a bit more to ease nose down.. Once the autobrakes kick in its a quick pullback of yoke so nose doesnt come crashing down.  Then your relaxing that to get nose wheel nicely onto ground.  Also as you touch down your raising levers for revers and waiting a few sec until there out then pulling em back as your easing nose down.  Thats all..

The reason you dont float a 737 especially an 800 is because your approach speed is usually around 150-160 kts! You see alot of runway going by pretty quick at those speeds.  I flew an approach into Denver not too long ago with 35 gusting 45kt winds. With target airspeed corrected for wind the approach speed was 170 kts! Max 5 knots below FL 30 airspeed.  Also add in the higher groundspeed due to high elevation and im sure it was pushing max tire speed! Fun fun

Also you dont want to just hold any pitch attitude cause as you bleed off speed you run the risk of a tail strike.  Most strike occur duebto a bounce andbthe pilots trying to save it and flare again as their speed is way back.  Best thing in that case isnto just hold what you have and let it settle in again.  Will be rough but you wont hit tail.  Or just TOGA and go around

Mike L

[matta757]

Mike,

Fascinating post, thank you for all that detail. Things that someone like me, who has never flown anything bigger than a Piper Cherokee doesn't even think about when flying on FlightSim. Also find your comments about the 738 interesting. They do land incredibly fast, much much faster than the -700, at least that's how it looks to an observer.

Matt

[Jetcos]

Hi Mike,

Reminds me of an article in Flying years ago by Len Morgan, talking about "greasing" a B727 landing.

Are you the next Len Morgan? Can you be?



Thanks for the info again, love hearing from a line pilot.

[jetpilot]

Thank you for your post Mike.
I have seen many videos of people landing and this "fishing" is quite common, at the point that I thought that it was the right way to land.

Roberto C

[nicd]

Thanks so much Mike, that clears it up nicely.. appreciate your experience and perspective!

Let's hope that guy has finished fishing.. poor old PAX in row 29 

[MLeavy737]

Hi Mike,

Reminds me of an article in Flying years ago by Len Morgan, talking about "greasing" a B727 landing.

Are you the next Len Morgan? Can you be?



Thanks for the info again, love hearing from a line pilot.

Lol, im not sure i remember him however don't look to me for many articles lol.  I'm definitely not a writer! Ill do my best though,

Mike L     

[MLeavy737]

And to everyone else.. No problem.. I always enjoy talking about technique.  I like to think i have some

Mike L