A-380 Oshkosh Ooops

[warbird1]

I stand happily corrected then. As I said, my understanding and learning of the stabilized approach was that no "large" corrections were to be made once stabilized. I don't consider "kicking out" the crab to be a large correction if done smoothly, but having spoken to both Frontier & United Airbus pilots, they stated that the "Airbus Way" of kicking out drift was quite aggressive and they felt to be somewhat unsafe because it would destabilize the aircraft (i.e. make it do what you saw the A380 do where you over do the correction) and that should necessitate a go-around (again, based on how the stabilized approach was taught to me).

No problem CAPFlyer, thanks for your input. I hadn't heard about that unique characteristic of the Airbus aircraft. I'll have to ask some of my buddies who fly it. They have told me, however, that flying the Airbus with that side stick controller is not the easiest airplane to land with strong crosswinds, because apparently the flight computer likes to "fight" or diminish the inputs of the pilot, somewhat.

[RyanShort1]

I thought stomping on the rudder in Airbus aircraft was considered dangerous...

Ryan

[warbird1]

I thought stomping on the rudder in Airbus aircraft was considered dangerous...

Ryan

It's all a matter of the context and circumstance under which you stomp the rudder. ALL large aircraft - whether Boeing, Airbuss, whatever, have design limits on the rudders on how much they can be deflected and at what speeds. Right after that American A300 crashed in New York right after 9-11, the NTSB put out a safety recommendation talking about NOT using full back to back control of the rudder at any speed. A lot of large airplanes have rudder limiters which reduce the amount of rudder authority you can put in as you get faster. Obviously, at faster speeds, a given rudder input will have greater effect, so full scale deflection is rarely needed. That American accident changed a lot preconceptions and techniques on how to use or not use the rudder in flight that is applicable to ALL large aircraft.

Basically, in summary, it's o.k. to stomp on the rudder on Airbuses, Boeings, etc. as long as you don't do a "full scale rudder reversal" going from stop to stop. One direction is fine, like what you would encounter on a crosswind landing. You just don't want to do a "full scale rudder reversal" at any speed, even well below the design speed of the rudder, because doing so can rip the tail off the aircraft.

For some light reading, I suggest:

The final NTSB report on the American A300 crash:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_i ... 2321&key=1

The NTSB safety recommendation that came out right after the American A300 crash in New York:

http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2002/A02_01_02.pdf

[RyanShort1]

I know, I probably should've put a "wink" at the end of that post.

Ryan

[Second Air Force]

Deleted.

[JDK]

This little item from Icelandic TV, thanks to a tip from Sigurjon, shows the crosswind landing and takeoff trials.

Might take a while to load, but worked for me.

http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/20 ... okust_vel/

Anything look familiar?

[warbird1]

This little item from Icelandic TV, thanks to a tip from Sigurjon, shows the crosswind landing and takeoff trials.

Might take a while to load, but worked for me.

http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/20 ... okust_vel/

Anything look familiar?

No, not really, but thanks for the clip anyways. That video shows the proper way to land an airplane in strong crosswinds. If you will notice the pilot takes the crab out during the flare and prior to the aircraft actually touching the runway. In the Oshkosh video, the pilot maintains the crab all the way to touchdown, putting tremendous side-load stress on the landing gear, and increasing the chances of post-touchdown anomalies, as we saw.

Well, that video is proof that at least one company Airbus pilot knows how to land in crosswinds!