FUTURA tailstrike at LBA [Archive]

ClintonBaptiste

5th Oct 2006, 09:59

Yesterday afternoon's Futura flight from LBA to Fuerteventura had to make an emergency landing back at LBA around 15:00, due to the a/c having a tailstrike on take off. It is thought the pilot failed to adjust his trim correctly and over rotated. This is the second time in a week that the airline has had to make an emergency landing at LBA.
After inspection by mechanics, the aircraft departed with passengers at around 18:00.

Attn: Futura! Any chance of a job? I am a newly qualified frozen atpl holder?:ok

captplaystation

5th Oct 2006, 19:30

At least they did a bit better than the one I saw in SNN a few years ago.We told the tower that from our vantage point at the holding point we thought he had made a tailstrike, they told him, he acknowledged, and then continued on his happy way to Tenerife or wherever,leaving us shaking our heads in disbelief and re-reading our own QRH to see if we were missing something obvious. . .we weren't.

hetfield

5th Oct 2006, 19:58

Yesterday afternoon's Futura flight from LBA to Fuerteventura had to make an emergency landing back at LBA

Are you talking about a decleared emergency or a turnback for tech reasons?

Regards

Denti

5th Oct 2006, 20:23

Seem they have quite a history of something like that. Last year they had a tailstrike at setting take off power in STR, the plane just sat down on its tail. The crew was warned of an out of trim situation during the turnaround by the rampagent and neglected that warning. The plane had to remain in STR for more than a month until it was repaired.

ClintonBaptiste

5th Oct 2006, 22:07

Hetfield: it was definitely a full declared emergency. 20 or more West Yorkshire fire engines were on the scene within minutes of the emergency being declared, every aircraft in the vicinity was forced to hold. A Jet2 737 from CDG almost had to divert to MAN as he only had 5 mins of holding time left.

TheShadow

6th Oct 2006, 01:45

Rego?
.
733, 734, 738??
.
It is thought the pilot failed to adjust his trim correctly and over rotated
At lower speeds does the trim have that much effect (on the attitude selected)? Wouldn't it be more correct to say that he just input too much backstick too quickly (or too early) and overshot his target pitch attitude?
.
Airplanes I've flown are more easily tailstruck by those attempting to rotate and unstick in one fell swoop - rather than select an attitude and wait for the airspeed increase to get you airborne...... with little further back-pressure being required. Maybe it's just horses for courses.
..

fxbat

6th Oct 2006, 07:48

737-800 that is exactly what I do, assume 8/10 degrees or so pitch. wait till the gear hit bottom and smoothly rotate to 12/15 into the flight director, for the climb out. Believe it or not you have less clearance landing (with the struts compressing) than taking off.

hetfield

6th Oct 2006, 08:58

Rainboe

6th Oct 2006, 10:20

Yes, why not? They didn't know what damage was caused to the plane, and it immediately closes the runway in case of debris.

flyingbug

6th Oct 2006, 18:04

Totally agree Rainboe,

why not declare an emergency? Would the "perfect pilots" here who criticise these decisions from the comfort of their living rooms be happy assessing post strike damage from within the flightdeck whilst in flight?

CB:

Attn: Futura! Any chance of a job? I am a newly qualified frozen atpl holder?:ok

When you are happily fortunate enough to be able enjoy the benefits of your f/ATPL I hope that you do not make errors that result in contributors to PPRUNE implying you should lose your job (no doubt you'll say its just humour - but for whom?)

FB

habubauza

6th Oct 2006, 19:03

I understand the biggest cause for tailstrikes are incorrect vspeeds for the actual aircraft weight believe it or not.

HR200

6th Oct 2006, 21:36

ClintonBaptiste, when you say declared an emergency, are you saying he declared a May Day or Pan Pan, because an emergency as you are describing is a May Day, and I really dont think it was that serious. Declaring a Pan Pan, yes, because he would want priority (urgency).

Just wanna check which it is.

almost professional

6th Oct 2006, 22:45

irrespective of what the crew may or may not have told ATC, the tower controller will have decided on the level of call out they require, probably a full emergency in this case, based on their 'take' on the incident-and they will always go for a higher category rather than lower, just in case!

WATABENCH

7th Oct 2006, 04:53

Wonder if it's the same captain that decided last week to not bother holding on the taxiway in BRS for a marshaller and to self moneuvre on to stand 4 := only problem was he came on at completely the wrong angle and ended up with his tail hanging over the ramp road, also managed to s**t up the SRT engineers who were on stand 5, i believe that BRS ASU were not impressed :}

ClintonBaptiste

7th Oct 2006, 14:52

Just to get a few things clear.

It was a 737-700, the pilot did fail to correctly adjust his trim setting. The load controller and dispatcher both made him aware of the need to change it, but he chose not to

The captain reported hearing a loud bang on rotation, it could have been anything really. Just last week a klm f70 aborted take off due to a birdstrike 2 ft from the fo's window.

flyingbug- What on earth are you on about? I was only touting myself to an airline! I would in no way want anyone to lose their job over something like this. There is not a single pilot out there who can say they have never made an error in their flying career.
I've had my f/atpl for 6months, speak 4 languages and like many others have not been fortunate enough to get a job yet.

Shanwickman

7th Oct 2006, 15:19

Just wondering if everybody in talking about the same aircraft.
Futura operate B734 and B738's. Unless they have a 700 subbed in.

vpcaptain

7th Oct 2006, 19:01

when we pulled up alongside on stand looked very much like a 737-800 as ive not seen a b737-700 with double overwing exits!:}

hobie

7th Oct 2006, 19:23

when we pulled up alongside on stand looked very much like a 737-800 as ive not seen a b737-700 with double overwing exits

I think you'r correct vp ....

here you go .....

http://myaviation.net/?pid=00860117

HR200

7th Oct 2006, 21:19

I work at the airport aswell as train for my pilots licence. I wasn't on shift that particular day, but one of my colleagues said that when it arrived back on stand, there was no evidence of a tail strike, but something else that caused sparks from the tail witnessed by the ATC controller.

airamerica

7th Oct 2006, 21:52

This mob is only a matter of time type of operation.
Lets no mention about the approach into BFS ALD approx 3 weeks ago, instead they lined up for an arrival to a small aerodrome which is located to the west of BFS.The tower instructed the aircraft to go around,and to a total disbelief they attempted from the goaround to land, which they did, some halfway down the easterly runway at BFS,all this after some very skillfull manoeuvering and crew coordination at low level.
Talk about an error chain!
It's sad to know that fortunately with the reliability of todays machines which are crewed by unadequatelly trained crews,that had we operated the stuff from the 60's, 70's or even the 80's, which were opearted by highly experienced crews, with cowboys like these, todays hull losses would have surpassed those from the same era by an extereme margin.

Pilot Pete

7th Oct 2006, 22:20

Just to get a few things clear.
It was a 737-700, the pilot did fail to correctly adjust his trim setting. The load controller and dispatcher both made him aware of the need to change it, but he chose not to Sorry Clinton, but just where do load controllers and dispatchers come into setting of aircraft trim? They are not trained on the aircraft type, probably wouldn't know where the trim is and almost certainly wouldn't be able to tell what it was set to and how this compared to the loadsheet figure and if a ground handling crew member came into my cockpit and started noseying around at how I had set the aircraft up I would be a little surprised to say the least. Please do tell on what basis you think the captain of this aircraft was told that his trim setting was incorrect.

PP