Interesting KC-46 approach at Paris
 

Scroll down link for the film.

Think someone forgot they are not on F-16s any more.....

Almost a bit late on the round-out there, Hoskins... :eek:

Except for the overshoot on alignment....the aircraft was very well flown.

Plenty of runway and decent touchdown with no control issues.

So...we ain't all perfect Sky Gods...give the guys a break!

Classic air display 'red mist' - can't look bad in front of your peers...

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Arrivals at big shows are part of the show, why not.

And who needs thrust reverse? Looks like a good brake test was done as well...

What a shambolic effort. With all Boeing's current self-inflicted problems, the last thing they needed was for some idiot to demonstrate that the KC-46 Pigsarse can't even seem to cope with a normal approach and landing....

Nice shot of the 'Rendition Class' passenger compartment windows - or rather, lack thereof.

Strange that this tanker wasn't fitted with its AAR pods for such an important air show.....

I heard they were looking for Blackbushe!:E

CG

Appalling lack of airmanship.

Nice kestrel hovering nearby!

BEagle
Probably because they haven't got any flight cleared pods yet:E

Wow, tough crowd here. Looked like an aggressive turning approach to an 8,000 foot strip- again part of the show at a major event, where arrivals and displays of even larger aircraft often have a bit of flair- and no it didn't end in tears. If she had flown a 3.5 degree straight in I imagine it would be derided as boring and proof of how limited it was.....

Had a lady been at the helm, in my experience she would have flown entirely according to SOPs! Quite rightly.

If this type of arrival was intended, then the goal of attracting interest has been achieved ;-)
Now it would be interesting to learn what actually happened. Last minute circuit change asked for by the crew ? By ATC ?
Aircrew mistake ? Technical issue onboard ?
Whatever the cause, it is always a good thing to aim for the runway center line, especially when thousands of cameras are focussed on your landing...

Probably just a spanner in the works...

At least the right hand side of the runway and grass verge got a good hoovering..

When I went through Flying Training if one came over the hedge with less than 30 degrees of bank on you were chopped.

:)
Do you mean they made a trainee landing ?

More seriously, as someone already stated, it looks like a last minute change of runway (21 instead of 25), with a little bit of a hurry.

From the linked article:
"A discussion is currently going on on social media between professional airline pilots whether or not the aircraft should have aborted its landing instead of continuing the unstable approach and landing halfway down the runway."

Or maybe military aircraft and aircrew have different requirements and therefore operate in a different way then what professional airline pilots are accustomed to.

Looks fairly normal and uneventful to me. Seen all sorts of (X)C-135's, KC-10's, C-17's and other military type heavies do those type of landings from a visual downwind. Do it the civi way at a fighter base, and you will be accused of flying the dreaded bomber pattern and ruining ATC's flow.

Not sure missing the touch down point by half a mile is really up to military requirements...

Several ways this approach could have ended:
-Go around
-Landing and then landing abort due to long landing and not enough stopping distance
-Landing long and ending up as a burning wreck somewhere past the overrun
-Landing hard on the nose wheel in an attempt to force it down in the touchdown zone
-Landing on the grass

or as in this case:

-landing long, and stopping without reversers and without any drama on the remaining runway.

Sorry, I don't see the issue here? Just because its not done this way in the civilian world does not make it unsafe.

Nothing like as bad as the An22 at Farnborough all those years ago

E cat, Hoskins!!

Thanks for that an22 video! Obviously there is finesse involved in manoeuvring a large aircraft like those in both of the shots, personally, the Ruskies handle with more style to it, the touchdown itself included.

More by luck than any reasoned judgement.

I will take luck over skill any day....

ExAscoteer, do you have any military aviation background in transports or tankers that makes you an expert?

2000 hrs C-130.

1000 hrs Nimrod

I also have 1000 hrs Dominie (HS-125) teaching Fast Jet Navs and Airmen Aircrew at (primarily) Low Level.

Oh, and 2000 hrs as a Multi-Engined Qualified Flying Instructor.

So I would suggest I know quite a lot about manoeuvring large aircraft close to the surface, whether land or sea).

If you would take luck over skill, you are the last person I would want to fly with, that's an accident waiting to happen.

Asks the teeny weeny Viper driver!

Powerful rudder authority!

ExAscoteer,

Thanks, I asked because it seems most of the guys commenting this landing don't have any military background. I could not see from your public profile whether you only "talked the talk" or also "walked the walk". I admit that I don't have any heavy experience, but have witnessed landings like that many times in exercises and operations down range. The guys doing those landings did them for a reason!

Genuine question: why do you think its more luck than reasoned judgement?

The luck over skill comment was me being sarcastic.

Ewan,

Do you have any contribution to this discussion?

Americans are much more familiar with side-step procedures than we British and a military flight positioning from Germany could well have incorporated a training element, so it is anybody's guess what their plan was. All looked pretty smooth and controlled to me. No drama.

BEagle - you really must tell us all soon about your employment with Airbus, trying to flog the A330 Tanker around the world to anyone daft enough to buy it! :) :ok:

The pilots did fine.
It's just the runway that missed the airplane by half a mile :-)

Half the posters here would have a heart attack of they had to fly into the old Kai Tak airport.

He should have done a go around then checked the runway was indeed clear, just like this ;)