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Old 12th Oct 2006, 16:22
  #71 (permalink)  
safetypee
 
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Vagar is recognized a demanding airport for commercial aircraft operations – 737 etc. One reason that the BAe146 was chosen is that is gives a greater safety margin – approach stability, landing distance, etc. The 737 operation required special approach speed profile and had limitations on the point of touchdown. The acceptable touchdown zone (very short – almost a square box) was marked with yellow boundaries; if the aircraft was not going to achieve a touchdown in the zone then a go around was flown.

The BAe146 operation did not require either the special speed profile or the landing box, however the box was retained to provide additional safety.
This is similar but not the same as BAe146/Avro RJ operations at LCY; there is a fixed distance marker which can be used (advisory) to define the end of the acceptable touchdown zone. From a previous post, the LCY operations have a required landing distance advantage from the steep approach. Vagar did not when I last visited. Although the NPA was steeper than normal it was not a precision system, thus there was no distance advantage; is there an ILS now?
It appears that Stord had none of the additional safety aspects of steep approach (landing distance) or landing box; neither apparently a suitable overrun area or protection.

A BAe146 'visited' the overrun protection area at Vagar on a previous occasion; the aircraft was not damaged. The incident was caused by a lift-dump / spoiler failure (possible crew error), the effect of which IIRC requires an increase of 40% in the landing distance. In most operations, such a failure after touchdown is not hazardous as the landing margin within the distance required and excess runway distance available enables the aircraft to be stopped safety. However, operations on a limited runway may not have all of this safety margin and the operating technique should be adjusted i.e. immediate high / max braking until all retardation devices are confirmed working. The point of change over can be defined by checking the margin (%) from the max allowed landing weight for the given conditions; if at any time it is 100% of MLW because the aircraft is distance limited (not often in the 146), then always use max brakes after touch down.

Avoid tailwinds, wet runways, and especially wet concrete runways
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