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Old 26th Jul 2010, 14:18
  #18 (permalink)  
JW411
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: UK
Age: 83
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Runway width matters a lot. If you are used to flaring whatever aircraft you happen to be flying on a standard 150 ft (46 m) wide runway then a 200 ft or 300 ft wide runway might just find you flaring a bit in the high side.

Indeed, a 100 ft wide runway (like the old Sharjah) can come as something of a surprise.

The very worst landing that I ever did took place at Francistown, Botswana on 14th Oct 1966 whilst in command of XN849 (one of Mrs Windsor's HS Argosys). None of us (apart from the Loadmaster) had ever been there before). We were told before take-off that there would be no one there to talk to us on the radio so, "look at the windsock and land".

We knew the Lat and Long and elevation of the airfield and that the main runway was something like 5,200 ft long. That was it.

I can remember on short finals remarking to my F/O that the runway was probably a lot longer - perhaps 7,500 ft.

That's when we entered the ground at speed.

The runway was indeed 5,200 ft long but it was only 60 ft wide!

Runway width matters a lot.
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