Déjà vu
I followed this thread with interest from the beginning and as it dipped back and forth between slanging match and good insight into how people’s perceptions vary. Anyone who comes through here regularly would know that Lomcevak’s credentials are as Danny described, and that the post was not a wind-up.
I tried to put myself in the position of Loncevak’s friend, a frequent flyer who may never have experienced anything more than moderate turbulence and the gradual descents, and I wondered what sort of rate of descent in a commercial jet it would take to alarm me. I am 58, not as frequent a flyer as I used to be, but I was brought up around airplanes and have flown in a fair assortment of aircraft, the widest range being whatever was available in Peru and the Amazon in the fifties, sixties and seventies. That covers from Stearmans through PBYs, DC-3/4/6s, Twin Otters on floats and not, 1-11s, F-28s, 727s and 737s. Given the weather and terrain there was the occasional fright.
One of the things this thread reminded me of was how much we take smooth, gradual manouvers for granted. Most frequent flyers today can go their passenger careers without experiencing anything you might call radical, even heavy turbulence, and they have no idea of the punishment a modern aircraft can take or what sort of manoeuvers these aircraft could accomplish if pushed, i.e far more than anything built 30-50 years ago and which had punishment dosed out to them in great gobs.
The explanations that came through in the thread later about the peculiarities of Albuquerque approaches, made perfect sense. No uproar in the cabin probably because most passengers had experienced the same before. Just alarming to Lomcevak’s friend.
Well, today I had a similar experience and I was alarmed. It was an Aerolineas Argentinas shuttle flight from Aeroparque in Buenos Aires, to Montevideo in a very vintage 737. Only about a 35 minute flight. Drizzling in BA, cloud all the way across at 22,000 feet, breaking through at what I estimated to be between 7 and 10 thousand feet after a gradual descent. And then the steepest descent I have ever experienced in a commercial aircraft and which I could only compare to going into St Barts or some tight places in the Amazon in a Twin Otter. I was sitting in 10A, the emergency exit, The downward angle felt like 60° although it may never have exceeded 20°. In rapid succession, spoilers, then gear and a rapid and continuous extension of flaps. I heard a few moans from around the cabin, nothing more. Didn’t time the descent, estimated it at 2, maybe 3 minutes. A few S-turns, then about 20 seconds wings level, still pointing down until about 100 feet off, rounding out, flare and a light thump down not too far from the threshold.
MVD is not exactly mountainous. Flat as a pancake all around. Suppose I could have asked why, because the captain was at the cockpit door, but there were people behind me and, frankly, I felt embarassed. I suspect that rapid a descent wasn’t necessary. But even if it wasn’t necessary, did it make a blind bit of difference? And from the wisp of smugness I saw in the captain’s slight grin I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, as the yoke was being pushed forward, someone up front said “watch this”.