Premature Virgin

[Catastrophic_Failure]

Hello All,

Firstly, before I get flamed and burned at the stake, I am not a pro in any way, just a very interested aviation observer. I'll no doubt get some terms wrong in this post but please forgive me the odd indiscretion.

I live on the approach into LHR, about seven maybe eight miles and a couple of turns before final approach. I see hundreds of beautiful birds fly over every day, but just now I saw a VS 747-400 come overhead with it's gear down. This is not usually the case with any aircraft I've seen. Can anyone tell me why this may be?


Cheers All.
CF.

[Polarhero]

Could be that he just needed more drag to decel to below flap limit speed.
:ok:

[Gin Jockey]

Could be that he wanted to extend the landing prior to touchdown. Always helpful I'm told.

[Catastrophic_Failure]

Hi GJ,

Thanks for the reply. What do yu mean by this? Sorry for sounding stoopid!



KF.

[A Very Civil Pilot]

I think GJ was being a little sarcastic!!

An aircraft needs to be below a certain speed before you can lower it's flaps. If you are too fast at a time when you really need to have flaps, lowering the gear earlier than usual will increase the drag of the aircraft and thus slow it down.