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Old 25th Jul 2009, 10:57
  #19 (permalink)  
Hartington
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 1,222
Received 9 Likes on 7 Posts
Whatever CAP413 may say (and whatever it is, I don't claim to know) I was on the flight deck of a 737 (not Ryanair, in fact probably before Ryanair) many years ago and the FO turned to me and said "we're now going to show you a short landing in a 737". After they had completed the exercise (involving a loud crash as something fell out just behind the bulkhead) I asked why. "We're 5 minutes late, short landing gets us the middle exit otherwise we have to go to the end and lose even more time". Nothing had been said over the R/T other than a clearance to land.

Interesting landings include several fog landings; it always amazes me how you can come down, down, down in bright sunshine and then enter this horrible murk. In one case the DH on the 757 was set at 8ft!

Then there was the landing with my brother in law (not planned, he had had a last minute call out) when we found ourselves turning finals with another plane crossing our path to head for the parallel runway. Trouble was the departing aircraft he was landing behind didn't depart so, with a medical emergency on board, he switched to our runway, we slowed to minimum, announced that over the R/T the plane behind us said "I can't fly that slow". Landing clearance came as we crossed the threshold, the heavy braking caused a brake overheat but we all landed fine. Colleagues in the main cabin hadn't realised anything! And brother in law told another story (related to the Embraerer roll above) of finding himself caught in a wake but only really realising it when he recognised he had wound in full aileron!

San Francisco can be fun when they are doing parallel landings up the bay and you find another plane closing on your wingtip as you approach the San Mateo bridge but it's almost more fun to watch from Coyote Point when you can see the departures as well taking off on the cross runways.

It's when you can see what's going on life becomes more interesting. The occasional overshoot while seated in the main cabin is never as much fun as sitting where you can see what's actually going on (most recently in Islanders).
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