Quote:
Why the Tiger flight first attempted its landing with a tail wind component when for a few minutes additional time in the air it could have made a conventional landing into the wind will no doubt be explored by the ATSB.
The above quote is maybe an indicator of the level of ingnorance by some commentators. The wind on approach and the wind on the ground are not the same thing. It is quite normal in some places to experience 20-30 knots tailwind on approach and with the risk of getting high despite the wind on the ground being VRB/5!
Thank you for information, a check of the winds at Avalon at the time (see below) shows steady down wind for runway 18 on the ground and (I am not a pilot) I suspect well with limits for a landing with wind on the tail. At Melbourne 50km away where they were experiencing similar winds they were landing into the wind; it is probably worth asking the question.
Dir Spd Gust Spd Gust
km/h km/h kts kts
11:30pm NNE 9 13 5 7
11:00pm NNE 15 22 8 12
10:30pm NE 13 15 7 8
10:00pm ENE 11 13 6 7
09:30pm NE 13 17 7 9
09:00pm NNE 13 17 7 9
08:30pm NNE 15 19 8 10
08:00pm NNE 13 17 7 9
07:30pm N 11 17 6 9
07:00pm NNE 17 20 9 11
06:30pm NNE 22 28 12 15
06:00pm NNE 17 24 9 13
05:30pm NNE 19 24 10 13