Rainboe:
"The problem is in a heavy landing, everybody is looking outside and nobody will glance at the VSI, so unless the aeroplane has a flight recorder than will spew out the figures, it takes an estimation of how hard ones backside was compressed to decide if a heavy may be on the cards."
The ACMS does provide an indication of the landing "g"s but i do feel that this should not be the primary determinant. I stand corrected, but the ACMS readout sampling rate is far lower than the Quick Access Recorder so at best it will provide one with a very approximate value. Notwithstanding this, i feel that the matter is not so straightforward, as i have attempted earlier to draw correlation between landing "g"s & landing weight.
"I think inertia has little to do with a heavy landing. Light or heavy, the descent of the aeroplane is arrested in a few inches, so fuselage bending moments will be unaffected. A large amount of fuel will simply stress the wing structure. The major determinant of Max take-off weight has to be structural strength of the Gear, with wing strength and lift having a lot of effect too."
This is a good point; nevertheless, would you say that the effects of "g" on the airframe (fuselage/engine mounts etc) during landing are the same as they are in turbulent flight? 1.5g at landing = 1.5g in flight? If so, then at the levels we are speaking of, the airplane is well inside its flaps down load factor limit of +2.0g. Unless of course we are all missing some other effect on the airframe that is peculiar only to the landing?