This pilot deserves a medal

[Dynasty]

Thats the craziest sidewind ive ever seen, and holy crap the wing almost touched the ground, yet he still manages SOMEHOW to prevent a catastrophic crash and pull up.

http://www.snotr.com/video/950

 

[Raziaar]

Yeah I saw this a week or so ago on yahoo I think.

Very scary... That wind moving the plane around so easily.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the wind also played a huge part in preventing the crash, in addition to potentially causing one.

Why do I think that? Because the way the plane moves, it looks like the wind slid it across the track and pressed down against the right wing and fuselage, causing the left side to raise back up. It doesn't seem just by surface controls at that altitude could have turned the plane like that.

Unless I'm looking at it wrong.

 

[Seppo]

yeah that's crazy.

i wonder if those guys with the camera were just waiting for a possible accident

 

[Unfocused]

That was all over the news a week or two ago.

 

[Vegeta897]

I don't understand... If he had landed, it would have been great. But he didn't... So why did he bother trying to land anyway? He prevented a crash that he was going to cause... He shouldn't have tried to land there in the first place. Obviously he didn't need to if he decided to abort the landing and fly somewhere else.

I realise this post comes off as pessimistic, and I realise he did an amazing feat, but the logic behind it just doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[Seppo]

dude, serious? it looked like the plane suddenly caught wind when he was nearly done with the landing, he couldn't have predicted that was going to happen.

i don't think he was going to fly somewhere else either. he just had to pull up to avoid a crash.

 

[Vegeta897]

Err, it seemed like conditions were ridiculously bad to begin with before that little slip. I mean the plane was facing a good 5 or 10 degrees off from its direction. Things could have been bad when the wheels hit the ground when they aren't aligned with the direction the plane is moving. Unpredictable gusts of wind is something you have to factor in to landing conditions as well.

Whether he's flying somewhere else or not, point is it's not like he had to land at that instant. He should have waited until conditions were better as long as he could, considering it was obviously incredibly risky.

 

[Seppo]

maybe the pilot did it all on purpose. that would make him even cooler, a carefully executed plan to almost crash but then save it at the last second.

i wonder what would've happned if the wing had hit the ground? explosion?

 

[MiccyNarc]

I mean the plane was facing a good 5 or 10 degrees off from its direction.

That's how you land in a crosswind.

Normally in a crosswind approach, you "crab" the aircraft, like you saw in the video, until 1500 feet above the runway. Then you "slip" (involves alot of opposite rudder and aileron) your plane so it's going straight at the runway.

Airliners do it differently, so it's more comfortable for the passengers on board, since flying the whole 1500 feet is very taxing on everyone onboard, you can actually feel weird pressure differences. They slip right before they touch down, so even though you're 10-20 degrees off the runway centerline, you'll be straight when you touch down.

This pilot didn't slip properly, and the wind carried the plane. From the video it looks as though he didn't apply the aileron properly, which would be hard to do considering it's an extreme head + crosswind.

But this isn't as risky as one might think. Check out videos of crosswind landings in hong kong.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OtnL4KYVtDE

This airport was actually closed because of the horrible winds. Basically every pilot that landed there had to deal with the winds in the first video in order to land.
Here's another good one:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7TDnMC_nagc

Why do I think that? Because the way the plane moves, it looks like the wind slid it across the track and pressed down against the right wing and fuselage, causing the left side to raise back up. It doesn't seem just by surface controls at that altitude could have turned the plane like that.

Surface controls did nothing there, the pilot realized he was never going to land it so closed the throttle, which is what you're supposed to do on any botched landing.

[/aeronautical science major]

 

[Vegeta897]

Well thank you, I wasn't aware this was a more standard procedure. That explains it.

 

[Sedako]

[/aeronautical science major]

Baby you can fly my plane.