FFP
13th Nov 2007, 00:04
Seems there's a new IF technique on multi's.....
RESIDENTS of Strensall could have been forgiven for thinking a disaster was about to happen upon seeing a passenger plane with its landing gear down flying low over the village.
The incident happened on Tuesday lunchtime with one Diary reader emailing us to say he was fearing the worst when suddenly the jet accelerated into "a steepish climb". He asked if anyone knew what the plane and its pilots were doing.
As always The Diary - or in this case the Royal Air Force - has the answer.
A spokesman for RAF Linton-on-Ouse said the plane was actually a VC10 which was originally built as a passenger jet but is now used for mid-air refuelling, serving in both Gulf Wars and the Falklands Conflict.
The plane had come from Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, on a training exercise and when seen over Strensall was flying at exactly 2,000ft.
The spokesman said he knew this as the pilot was practising an instrument approach where radar beacons are used to get the airplane on to the runway's centre line and the aircraft descends at the optimum angle for a smooth landing - known as the glide float.
Anyone used this technique ? Is it similar to flaring early, panicking, continuing to pull back on the column and spanking it in 3000ft down ?
If so, I know that one ....;)
RESIDENTS of Strensall could have been forgiven for thinking a disaster was about to happen upon seeing a passenger plane with its landing gear down flying low over the village.
The incident happened on Tuesday lunchtime with one Diary reader emailing us to say he was fearing the worst when suddenly the jet accelerated into "a steepish climb". He asked if anyone knew what the plane and its pilots were doing.
As always The Diary - or in this case the Royal Air Force - has the answer.
A spokesman for RAF Linton-on-Ouse said the plane was actually a VC10 which was originally built as a passenger jet but is now used for mid-air refuelling, serving in both Gulf Wars and the Falklands Conflict.
The plane had come from Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, on a training exercise and when seen over Strensall was flying at exactly 2,000ft.
The spokesman said he knew this as the pilot was practising an instrument approach where radar beacons are used to get the airplane on to the runway's centre line and the aircraft descends at the optimum angle for a smooth landing - known as the glide float.
Anyone used this technique ? Is it similar to flaring early, panicking, continuing to pull back on the column and spanking it in 3000ft down ?
If so, I know that one ....;)