PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Side Slip (wing down/cross control) Landing Technique on Airbus (A330)
Old 14th Nov 2014, 01:34
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hikoushi
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Many years of wing-down landings in Cessnas and such. Flew GA from a young age and only went for the commercial path when it dawned on me that it is better to fly on someone else's dime.

When pursuing my instructor's certificate many moons later, a wise old eagle taught me the technique I've used since on pretty much everything. Fly the airplane in the crab INTO THE FLARE, round out and hold it just above the deck. Squeeze in the rudder to straighten the nose while simultaneously squeezing in opposite aileron to keep wings level; at the moment the nose is dead strait, keep the wing coming down slightly and continue to rudder the nose down the runway. This is, of course, EXACTLY the same technique you would use to establish your "wing-down sideslip" at 100 feet or wherever.

BUT, since you are right over the runway, your slip is interrupted by the upwind wheel pressing into the ground. It will do so with just the scarcest bit of bank, since you are "pirouetting" in the flare. Also lets you choose the moment the wheel touches, in a similar way to a wheel landing in a taildragger. And, if you blow it and flare high, you just wind up in a normal wing-down approach. In a big plane usually not even that happens, as your inertia will keep you tracking straight a good bit longer than in a lightplane (mega-winds notwithstanding).

In the Airbus I do what basically feels just like that method. Starting it right around the first "retard" call along with the final throttle reduction seems like a decent starting target, then adjust that for energy state, wind, steeper approach slope, etc.

This is of course, just a technique so take it or leave it.

So far so good, except for the first few mega-pancakes and the occasional random wonky approach (usually after a long red-eye that lands before sunrise. Good morning EARTH! "No, Tower, we don't need the trucks! I was just using the main landing gear to drill for oil here on the numbers of 23 Left! What's that? No, we didn't strike crude, that is just my number 2 tire vaporizing").
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