Somebody please help me.

[Squee]

I am having an argument (very sad i know) on an internet forum i used alot.

I am being called stupid and more for telling people it is possible to glide a passanger plane. Not always sucessfuly, but it can be done.

Can i get the professionals to either tell me i am correct, or that i am wrong?

If im right, it wont make any differance to that lot, but it will too me. If im wrong, ill admit it.

Many thanks. :)

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Of course it is possible to glide an airliner, although it's obviously not something any pilot would want to do as the end result may not be desirable..

[Squee]

That is all i needed.

Thankyou.

[Squee]

Im going too need a few more people too confirm or denie this, as it seems your word is not good enough for some people. :(

I belive ya, but of course thats because you have proved my right. lol

[kooyheier]

It is possible indeed... Just check out this link... involved an Airbus A330!

Air Transat Flight 236 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236)

[west lakes]

Equally well known

Gimli Glider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider)

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

And the BA B747 which lost all four engines due to volcanic ash - that was gliding.

[Fly-by-Wife]

And the BA 777 that "landed short" at Heathrow - that was certainly gliding the last few hundred feet.

So was the Airbus that ditched in the Hudson, as both engines flamed out from bird strikes. The same thing happened to the RYR 737 that landed at Rome last year with both engines out.

FBW

[Herod]

If you think about it, an airliner without power is really just a big glider, albeit a pretty inefficient one. As long as sufficient speed is maintained over the wings, they will produce lift. One has to hope there is some means of hydraulic power, since the controls of a big aircraft suffering manual reversion can be very heavy.

[treadigraph]

BA VC-10 flamed out (fuel mismanagement?) in the early 1970s, crew eventually restarted all four.

Also a Hapag Lloyd A310 which ran out of fuel just short of Vienna.

[raffele]

To highlight FBW's post - might I suggest a more recent and obvious case of an passenger airliner having to glide - the case of US Airlines flight 1549 back in January...

US Airways Flight 1549 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549)

[Squee]

You lot are proving my point over and over again. So many thanks too you lot.

If only said people would admit they are wrong, but i think they dont want to be shown up by a Norfolk Boy. (Im ment to be stupid acording to them)

[al446]

I would have thought a perfect example landed in the Hudson not long ago quite well, or was I dreaming?:ok:

[deltayankee]

Any aircraft that can fly can also glide -- even the space shuttle glides back to earth after each flight. The only problem is that they do not glide as efficiently as gliders. Plus you have only one shot at a landing; this is exciting fun for glider pilots but not so much when you are flying a heavy aircraft with hundreds of squishy pink things in the back.

[mutt]

Squee, we know that they will glide provided that they have sufficient speed, this speed is achived by losing altitude, so as long as you have sufficient altitude you can glide quite a distance.....

You should ask them "if you believe that the aircraft WONT glide, then what will happen to it when all engines fail due to lack of fuel or external influence (Volcanic ash)?

Mutt

[GARDENER]

or ask them "what will happen to, for example, a 737 at 35000 feet if one of the pilots decides to bring the throttles back to idle?".....(I mean to the aircraft!)

[L337]

Post a link to the forum! We can all go over there and post. :)

[ReadyToGo]

FAO Gardener...

Have you never seen the Roadrunner and Coyote cartoons. The 737 will stop mid air, hang around for a few seconds untill the pilot puts his hand out, feels around, realises he's at 35000 feet, then it will plummet like a stone.

RTG!

[Kerosene Kraut]

Think Space Shuttle

[Glamdring]

What's the forum?

[coldair]

There's a film about the Gimli Glider called FREEFALL FLIGHT 174

Available on eBay.

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Upon Any commercial Airliner that you travel on, most often when it begins its descent to eventual landing, the throttles will be pulled back to flight idle, or something approaching, i.e. producing none, or next to no significant forward thrust.

Ergo it is gliding.