The Gimli Glider or 'How to Sideslip a 767'

[QDMQDMQDM]

Everyone knows this amazing story, but this is a very good article recapping it from the Australian CASA:

http://www.casa.gov.au/fsa/2003/jul/22-27.pdf

Who says stick and rudder skills are no use to an airline pilot?

[Say again s l o w l y]

A very neat bit of flying, but a calculator may have been more useful in the first place!

[robdesbois]

Out of interest do airline pilots now practice simulated deadstick landings?

[foxmoth]

This is not usually a part of the sim check but occasionally you get a bit of time at the end to try something extra - I have used this to try dead stick in the A330 and I know others have done the same.:ok:

[BRL]

The aeroplane has just been retired.............

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080124.wgimli24/BNStory/National/home

[tonker]

I did a dead stick landing on a sim session in Brussels, with the 737 it's called manual reversion.

Well your gliding, the controls are very heavy, and they take time to respond due to their weight and effort needed to move them. Once you have mastered predicting how early to start turns etc as i said it's gliding.

Regards

[eharding]

Once you have mastered predicting how early to start turns etc as i said it's gliding.


What does it take to get some decent thermal lift in a 737 simulator then? - does the sim automatically paint itself low-visibility white, adopt a practised air of moral superiority, and start lurking around under likely looking clouds with a dozen or so like-minded simulators? :)

[Say again s l o w l y]

Don't forget you aren't allowed to use the radio and if you can get yourself into controlled airspace all the better, especially if you can get a large gaggle of formation gliding sims....................

[Melax]

I was revisiting the saga of the Gimli Glider. In an interview the pilot stated that you couldn't sideslip an Airbus, the computer would not let you cross control, is it still the case ?, Has Airbus changed the software to allow such maneuver? (That statement was made 25 years ago)

http://www.casa.gov.au/fsa/2003/jul/22-27.pdf

[Pugilistic Animus]

Pretty descent glide ratio on the 767 I think the {figga}:} is 12:1

sideslip a Boeing or any conventional plane the same way you do an Archer/C-182 etc...although Airbus is a little funny to me I think I would find some aspects a bit hard and confusing--but I I don't want fly an Airbus and I definitely have a choice not to

[Vulcan607]

if I remember rightly there was a low cost budget movie made from this story of the 767 - it has been aired on channel 5 a few times

[Heliplane]

Isn't the maneuver technically a "forward slip" rather than a "side slip"?

[1800ed]

In exercise 8 of the PPL course it's called a sideslip when you cross controls to increase the rate of descent.

[Will Hung]

The article mentions the nose gear being "stuck part-way". The photos appear to contradict this. Can anyone explain ? Are there any boffins out there who can estimate what the rate of descent would have been whilst slipping ?

[john_tullamarine]

Isn't the maneuver technically a "forward slip" rather than a "side slip"?

Sideslip is sideslip .. however, if performed whilst aligned with the landing runway, the Americans call it a forward slip .. but it's still a plain old garden variety sideslip.

[Panama Jack]

Out of interest do airline pilots now practice simulated deadstick landings?

Not in the simulator as part of a normal training course; tried it once on an A320 during initial cours. Of course some of us are glider pilots. It is worthy to note that Captain Pearson who was flying the Gimli Glider is a sailplane pilot. Somebody told me that one of the fellows who pulled off the Air Transat A330 landing in the Azores is also a glider pilot, but I am not sure about this

[MartinCh]

Hello guys.

I researched some stuff about gliding ratio (googling) and came across Gimli glider.
What an interesting read on Wiki. I checked out other stuff about gliding airliners as well. I just don't get those folks who took the 'last flight' of that Boeing as a way to remember almost getting killed. Maybe a gesture of HUGE thanks to the pilot, but if it had been me as passenger:rolleyes:, I wouldn't go anywhere near that airplane again

I've been working on gliding helicopters aka autorotations past 4 weeks towards PPL (not being finished soon anyway, long story). Looks like 'if it can't glide, it can't fly' especially with fixed wing.
I'm intrigued by autogyros as well. The curator/warden of little airplane museum at Aeropuerto Cuatro Vientos, Madrid (not the one with choppers I was heading to, other side too far away) was the first guy mentioning it was invented in Spain :-D

I believe gliding skills help with airplane flying on top of the fact it's fun.
If I ever make to airliner (not that I desire so), gliding experience can obviously make difference in such freak incident/accident.
Even without it, gliding techniques are still useful (what power pilots practise only for emergency)

Will Hung, I don't think there was serious damage to aircraft due to gear not 100% out.. 'part' is part, not full/y.

[BeechNut]

I used to fly a lot on business in Canada and had the pleasure of flying on Fin 604 (C-GAUN) many times (now parked in the desert awaiting a likely fate as beer cans).

I also had the pleasure of meeting Captain Bob Pearson on a YVR-YYZ flight. A true gentleman, and a great pilot. He had been president of the gliding club in my old home town. Meeting him was one of the high points of my aviation life.