Originally Posted by
Unhooked
A few times a year I shoot an approach where the wind down to about 1500' is gusting 65+ knots and the wind on the ground is around 25-30 knots.
I find the best way to mitigate a VFE CONF FULL exceedence is to fly a CONF3 landing. Flying selected speed also works just fine but you do cancel the groundspeed mini function. Not a train smash really because Boeing's land every day just fine without it.
Hi Unhooked,
As a retired old fart, I hesitate to argue with a current operator, but I experienced the first 14 years of A320 ops and your scenario remains all too familiar 18 years later.
In those conditions, my airline recommended Config 3 for a better performance margin in wind sheer, but I found the 320 a bit skittish with it and the A/THR sometimes commanding almost idle thrust. So I preferred Config Full. The GS-Mini system allegedly gives a 5 kt margin below Vfe (the subject of this thread), but as you suggest that may not be enough to avoid a short-term exceedance if there's a big gust. Using selected IAS solves that problem, but obviously you lose the safety and handling benefits of GS-Mini.
Can I respectfully suggest you consider the compromise technique described in the second half of my post above, which addresses that scenario?
https://www.pprune.org/tech-log/628054-gs-mini-versus-vfe.html#post10642917