"Am I right in thinking that the MD11 has a couple of features to assist in the lowering of the nose-wheel upon touch down?
-Ground spoilers deploy only initially to 45deg until the nose-wheel strut is compressed, then the spoiler handle continues to the 60deg (full position).
-Engine 2 is limited to idle reverse until the nose-wheel strut is compressed.
Is this correct?"
The FCC's recieved a program correction years ago to drive the stab A.N.D. after the MLG is compressed to my knowledge years ago as a result of several tail strikes. The Md-11 is not an aircraft that is safe to perform "aerodynamic breaking" in because of the smaller horizontal stab.
This could have had a slight influence.