Weird landing

I just took a short flight with a budget British carrier (Easyjet). The flight itself was fine, but when we landed the plane set down a bit hard, and then the pilot never braked with the engines. Instead she just coasted the plane all the way to the end of the runway (the parking spot was way down at the end of the airport anyway so it saved some taxiing, but it was still odd...)

I thought they were supposed to use the engine braking so as to immediately get the planes below the threshold where they generate lift? What do y'all want to bet those discount carriers have told their pilots to approach very slowly and then coast down to save fuel? Yeesh.

In reply to Jay:

Probably. They likely also told them to leave overdrive on. All the old pilots leave it on anyway because they can't figure out the controls in these new fancy jets.

Maybe you were on this plane?

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/11/emergency-testing-a-boeings-brakes-equals-awesome/

Weirdest landing I've had was in a 50 year old DeHavilland Beaver. I looked out the front and all I could see is lake then at the last second the pilot pulled up and the plane sat down on the lake. It was really abrupt but fairly smooth. Then we taxied for 20 minutes. I think the pilot was having fun with us...

They don't serve peanuts anymore because pretzels are lighter. They will do anything to save weight.

They may have had a thrust reverser problem. It is not good to have one deploy and have the other one stowed. I will often not use the reversers if I anm using a long runway.

Besides, if the parking spot was down there, and the airport was not stacked up, why be in a hurry to slow down and get off the runway? Just cruise down and save time. When the airport is busy, they want you off the main strip ASAP, but no need if there is nobody on approach behind you.

Jay wrote: Instead she just coasted the plane all the way to the end of the runway (the parking spot was way down at the end of the airport anyway so it saved some taxiing, but it was still odd...)

Some jets don't have thrust reversers (the USAF ordered all it's CFM56/F108s without them, for example...dumb). Or maybe they malfunctioned and were unusable.

But the real answer you said yourself in the quoted bit. Would you mash the brakes at the beginning of a long driveway, so you'd have to accelerate again to get to the end?

As for the fuel bit, ILS approaches aren't something carriers have any control over. Example of an approach plate.

I think I've been on a long runway/small plane combo before that didn't use reversers. I never thought anything of it.

Many times smaller planes don't need reversers if they're landing on a long runway designed for 767s and other large birds.

Jay wrote: I thought they were supposed to use the engine braking so as to immediately get the planes below the threshold where they generate lift?

The spoilers pop up on touchdown to kill the lift on the wing so the brakes can do their job. No sense abusing the engines if you don't need the extra stopping power.

Oh great, Osterkraut broke the thread.

alex wrote: Oh great, Osterkraut broke the thread.

Looks fine to me! Wooo Chrome!

The bold in the quote box may be the source of the problemo.

Edit: Took out the bold bit, maybe that'll fix'er. All respect to Baxster, but the attempt to reinvent the wheel with this forum software ain't working out so well, still.

Looks OK to me in Firefox 4, too.

Osterkraut wrote:

alex wrote: Oh great, Osterkraut broke the thread.

Looks fine to me! Wooo Chrome! The bold in the quote box may be the source of the problemo.

Fine to me too in Firefox. Are you using a browser other than Chrome or Firefox? What else is there? Safari?

Looks fine on droid.

A small jet or turbo prop followed by a 747 will usually come in a little hot. Then it will either fast brake and get off the runway or not brake and get to the other end quickly. Fly a small turbo prop into Atlanta and you will see what I mean. My guess is a jumbo was following you in.

On a slightly different note. The airport close to me also has an airbase attached to it. The main runway comes right up the local road and you can look right down it when driving by. (it's also an emergancy landing site for the space shuttle.. so the runway is HUGE)

Yesterday, coming home. There was a small single engined piper sitting at the edge of the runway waiting on clearance to enter.. and right behind it was a pair of F15s.. I never realised how big the fighters really were until then.

And I thought this was going to be a thread about UFO's.

Toyman01 wrote: A small jet or turbo prop followed by a 747 will usually come in a little hot. Then it will either fast brake and get off the runway or not brake and get to the other end quickly. Fly a small turbo prop into Atlanta and you will see what I mean. My guess is a jumbo was following you in.

I have a mental picture of a little plane scurrying down the runway going EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I took a 12 seater from Hartford, Ct. to New London, Ct. Oy.

We passed big planes on the grass, so low I could read license plates on cars, the co-pilot sat next to me half way through the flight "How we doin'?

He pulls a hose out from under the seat and starts pumping hydraulic fluid into/from somewhere!

You tell me how we doin'.

Any landing you can walk away from .....

Keith wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: A small jet or turbo prop followed by a 747 will usually come in a little hot. Then it will either fast brake and get off the runway or not brake and get to the other end quickly. Fly a small turbo prop into Atlanta and you will see what I mean. My guess is a jumbo was following you in.

I have a mental picture of a little plane scurrying down the runway going EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK

914Driver wrote: I took a 12 seater from Hartford, Ct. to New London, Ct. Oy. We passed big planes on the grass, so low I could read license plates on cars, the co-pilot sat next to me half way through the flight "How we doin'? He pulls a hose out from under the seat and starts pumping hydraulic fluid into/from somewhere! You tell me how we doin'. Any landing you can walk away from .....

This reminds me of Ron White: (NSFW)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRJpRu2RsSs

914Driver wrote: I took a 12 seater from Hartford, Ct. to New London, Ct. Oy. We passed big planes on the grass, so low I could read license plates on cars, the co-pilot sat next to me half way through the flight "How we doin'? He pulls a hose out from under the seat and starts pumping hydraulic fluid into/from somewhere! You tell me how we doin'. Any landing you can walk away from .....

Sounds like the plane we took back from our honeymoon. We had to change planes in DC to get to Albany. They take us down this long flight of stairs to a bus and drive us to the edge of the airport where they keep the planes they are embarassed to own. It was me, my wife, and some of a college track team. The stewardess is trying to seat us by weight to keep the plane balanced. It took about as long to fly back as it does to drive, and I'm pretty sure we sprayed a couple of corn fields on our way.

A stewardess? We didn't get one. This was Pilgrim airlines, probably out of business now.