skiesfull.
"normal deck angle on a 747 approach" -do you mean the aircraft attitude? If you do, it'll be between 2 and 3.5 degrees depending on the land flap position (either 25 or 30 degrees). Touchdown with approx. 10 degrees attitude will mean a tail-strike.
No. I meant Deck Angle. And I said approach - not ‘touchdown’.
As for BA landing nose-wheel first at Perth - I think you must have been at the drinks trolley!
skiesfull – you doubting my word?
Now if someone from BA Tech Records will kindly confirm for me – a 747 heavy landing at Perth, around 2am on the 14th September 1986. (I know it's 20 years ago but they'll be there somewhere.) The aircraft left SIN late evening of 13th. (For you skiesfull, I’ve even gone to the trouble of checking an old passport!)
Now I’ll tell you what happened, and I remember it very clearly because it scared me!
At top of descent the Captain came on to say it ‘was such a beautiful night he could already see the lights of Perth’. Down we came, and down. Then I started to see houses and street lights and reckoned we were at 4 to 5,000. That was when I had my first thought that this wasn’t quite normal. I was spending half my life on 747s and I had a suspicion that we were very much nose down.
Down we came to 2,000 and still nose down. I kid you not - I was alone in a J class row and I even checked the hang of the curtains on a galley across from me just in case my ears/balance were stuffed.
No doubt about it – a pronounced nose down attitude and we were now about to cross the perimeter fence. I pushed my brief case further under the seat - and strapped in hard. The nose wheel (I was sitting not far behind it) hit with an almighty whack and we pitched up. A split second later, as we ‘rotated’ the mains hit and down came the ceiling panels – accompanied by lots of screaming from the back end.
Then it started to get amusing. We'd taxied in and, eventually, we de-planed through the front door, steps and onto the ramp. A middle aged American couple was ahead of me, and he was pretty upset about something. Turns out, as I listened-in, he was going to wait for the captain at the bottom of the steps to enquire just WTF he thought he was playing at. This should be worth waiting for I thought. Five minutes later down came the captain in shirt sleeves and, I can picture this now, wearing the biggest hat I’ve ever seen – Russian Admiral style.
Our American friend physically grabbed him, introduces himself as a 15,000 hour PanAm 747 captain and, as I said, asks him just WTF he thought he was playing at. His genuine fury was tempered with some curiosity as he didn't believe it possible to set up a 747 for an approach and then produce a nose wheel first landing. I’d have paid
money to watch this! Our Admiral, very wisely kept silent for the bollocking and then wandered off - tail between legs.
Trust me. You
can land a 747 nose wheel first. How? I don't know. But it
can be done.