HEATHROW DIRECTOR said:
"Incidentally, for those who think Airbuses are difficult to slow down... this afternoon a straight in A320 on 27R off LAM was given no speed control. At 10DME he was doing 280kts GS and at 4nm he was doing 200kts GS.. and he landed safely!"
Was it safe? If your groundspeed at 4D is 200 knots then the chances are your IAS is in excess of 200 knots. That means Flap 1 only (200 limit for F2). So at the very least you got 3 more flap extensions and possibly (usually
) the gear as well. At 200 knots your doing approx 3 and a bit miles per minute (ok your going to be decelerating - just). If you wish to be stable by 500agl MINIMUM (1.5 miles from threshold) by my calculations you've got 2.5 miles or about 45 seconds to reduce from 200 knots to about 140ish, get fully configured, get the thrust up and complete the landing checks........
A bit of an academic analysis I know, but IMHO that is not the way to operate a modern medium jet (or small or heavy for that matter).
It's obvious that some people have not learned the dangers of unstable approaches. The Gulf Air A320 accident in Bahrain started as a result of simply being too damned fast! Two go arounds, the second of which killed all on board
I'd be interested to know what the companys flight safety department would have to say. I can only assume they don't have QAR's or SESMA (?). At least it will be mandatory for all in a couple of years, then some may adjust their behaviour accordingly if they don't want tea and biccies with the CP.
Ask yourself, would you want your family on board an aircraft being operated in such a manner.
A4