PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Do you fly your Freighter differently than a passenger Aircraft ?
Old 11th Apr 2012, 12:10
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BraceBrace
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Blue sky
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Freighter flying is usually both sides of the envellope: either extremely heavy with interesting and limiting takeoff performance, or empty and hardly any fuel which makes landings like trying to land something that just doesn't want to land and gets thrown around like a paper plane (slightly exagerated, but you get the point). These landings are far more interesting than high weight landings (except for the fact that on some types like the 737 you find yourself chasing the max landing weight on approach).

Passenger flying seemed to be much more "somewhere in the middle, but always a tad away from the limit". Freighter is sometimes takeing off AT the limit, landing AT the limit, emty... really EMPTY.

Heavy landings I find easy, they usually end up in nice greasers because of the stability of the airplane in the flare. It's the empty landings that are more likely to "drive the undercarriage through the wings". On our 777 the Vrefs are floored, pitch is fairly flat and any excessive flare input will send you halfway down the runway in a sigh. On a 737 freighter ie, turbulence and gusts can make your empty landing very interesting...
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