Overweight Landings

[yintsinmerite]

With reference to the thread about a Cathy Pacific engine issue at Heathrow, it mentions "Over weight Landing " and "Runway inspection!". As a PPL, I had never thought that there may be a possibility of runway damage from an over weight landing, but there obviously is. From this, I am making an assumption that runways must have a rated maximum that they can handle presumably in KG/m2. Am I right in this, and can anyone point me at a quick guide (for no other reason than I just want to know).

[issi noho]

It isn't really about damage to the runway, all runway inspections routinely look for that.

It is more to do with procedures required to hold an aerodrome licence, following any incident, a runway inspection is required; they look for anything which may have come from the aircraft, not specific to this case but things such as engine parts for a catastrophic failure, tyre damage, fluids like oil or hydraulics, brake damage (in some of the older style brake units the pad material can look more like expanded foam following a high speed reject) nuts, bolts, panels, fairings, stuff from fire engines which attended the incident. and the list goes on.

Once the inspection proves the runway meets normal criteria it may be used again.

With regards to the overweight landing, the aircraft manufacturer or operator will have provided the crew with information and training to limit damage and engineering inspections to a minimum. Whether it was prudent to carry it out or delay until MLM will no doubt be the subject of debate.

[yintsinmerite]

Ah of course, I hadn't thought of that angle. Much appreciated

[extreme P]

Current system is Aircraft Classification Number/Pavement Classification Number (ACN/PCN). The book Aircraft Performance Theory For Pilots has an excellent write up about it.

[extreme P]

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/airports/faq.html

Try this...