Tail strike at Faro

[Norman Stanley Fletcher]

Flex 42

To suggest that changing your approach speed in accordance with the prevailing wind conditions is the same as changing your DA or V speeds is clearly incorrect and shows your lack of understanding of what I have said. The whole problem of GSmini is the one of knowing which tower wind to use and that is not written down anywhere. Do you use the last ATIS wind or the last steady state wind from ATC? In most cases it makes virtually no difference but there are occasions when it will. Most people have no idea what the tower wind does and by definition cannot make an informed decision of what to put in.

The changing of your approach speed by altering the tower wind to reflect reality is similar to the 'non-standard' practice of puting 3 knots on the approach speed for a 321 which many people employ and has exactly the same effect. You will not find that in any manual for any company either but it is common practice - for very good reasons. We are all after the same deal - safe flying based accurately on knowlege and experience. For example most pilots would all apply a few knots for a gusty crosswind and the decision as to how many is 'a few' would be down to the individual pilot on the day with the captain having the final say. I am not advocating an 'under the table' technique, but what I am saying is that it is reasonable to be informed as to what is actually going on in the aircraft you fly. The decision to add a few knots to your approach speed under certain conditions is entirely reasonable and there are many ways of doing that. Like I said earlier - balance is everything. The random application of 20 knots onto your approach speed would not be sensible but a few knots sometimes is. That is airmanship and good judgement which we hopefully all exercise daily.

This forum is for the balanced discussion of matters such as this, but sadly it always decays into people getting on their high horse and telling everyone else how bad they are. All I have asked for is informed insight into how something as fundamental as approach speed is calculated. You never know - it is possible that the poor soul who had the tailstrike could have benefitted from a few extra knots to avoid a low energy drop out the sky and subsequent bounce. For those that want to have understanding of this subject the answers are there. There again you can just carry on in uninformed ignorance for ever, never researching an issue properly, and just rant on to those that do.