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Old 30th August 2000 | 08:48
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Blacksheep
Cunning Artificer
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From: The spiritual home of DeHavilland
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To view the actual instantaneous landing "G" force of any aircraft you would need a specially instrumented aircraft that monitored "G" continuously. The FDR records Vertical Acceleration only as a series of extremely short samples recorded eight times per second. In other words it plots a graph of vertical acceleration as a series of points on a time base of one eight of a second. The chances of one of the sample points actually coinciding with the instant of touchdown are very remote, the peak "G" is more likely to occur between samples. Boeing specifically stated, when we posed the question asked by our Flight Operations "What would be the DFDR reading for a 'Heavy Landing'", that it is not possible to tell. Quote "A heavy landing is one that is heavy in the opinion of the crew or after which signs of structural damage or overload are evident." Unquote.

In conclusion: Don't try to use aircraft instruments for purposes for which they were not designed nor overestimate their accuracy.

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