Strong gusts on approach
 

I have done landings in florida with gusts to 20 but I was at MAN today watching a 757 coming in, and today was very bad, winds gusting to 40mph, i have been in a 50kt wind in an embraer but it didnt have dark clouds like today and just felt completly different that night compared to what i was seeing today, i was on the approach end of 25R and the planes on approach just worried me for their safety as much as mine, the 757 getting pushed up and then pushed down and swinging to the right just over the road of shadow moss right next to touch down.

Do you beleive that your life is in the hands of nature at this point.

Or is it a fact of, 757 approaching at say 180kts, wind adds 20kts in gust then takes it away straight after hence the climb then descend caused by the wind. How does this differ to the dangerous windshear?

Thanks :)

P.S I've searched google for tafs but only present weather available and i'm after around 11am GMT if poss, Plus i'd love to ask the BA 757 from heathrow pilot that landed at 12:30 what he thought, please dont put this in plane spotters corner as i want to carry onto my ATPL maybe and i cant just ask the airline if i can fly in pretty weather:p

if you dont want ur post in a spotters corner, dont ask a spotters question!
:ugh::ugh::ugh:

If you look carefully it's not a spotters question! This is a serious matter taht should be taken seriously, you know weather is a bad thing and if you dont care about how the weather acts then maybe you're not a good pilot. My flying instructor in the USA was amazed at how i did greaser landings in crosswinds. It's because I like to know how the weather affects my plane.

What I dont know is how 757 pilots handle the more severe gusts and there is nothing wrong in me wanting to learn without people like you just shrigging me off as a plane spotter topic.

You need to be doing the same thing, asking questions about weather unless you just dont care about being a good pilot.:ugh:

If you're on a gusty approach you would tend to add half of the gust factor to your approach speed (up to a limit I believe specified in your ops manual). This protects you against an inadvertent stall while not increasing your speed so much that you float all the way down the runway. Perfectly safe, just requires you to be a bit more focussed on short final :}

Thanks mate, I can say that in light aircraft that i enjoy the simple wind gust of 5 kts and its just a simple straighten the plane out :) Do you think if it was say 270/20 gusting 30 that you could easily go to 090/20 causing the windshear problem?

Or would there be a pattern to certain weather that can be predicted? :)

Generally a factor (recommended by Boeing) for the B757 is half of the wind from a minimum of 5 knots and all of the gust up to a maximum of 20 knots added to your approach speed. (Vref30)

Thanks JB007 :)

Great Deskcaptain! This one was the time that it got very bad for about 20 minutes
26019g31kt 220v290 9999 Bkn038 10/06 Q0980 Tempo 26025g41kt Shra=
I've landed in 50 kt gusts last xmas eve but these today obviously feeling the variable directions.

Adverse bump, this chap is asking a valid question, leave him alone and grow up.

here here - I dont think it helps when people on here try to be witty and above everyone else!
If someone has an answer to a question or can offer information that can help that person, then great - if not just stay quiet as your not helping

Thanks :), I don't mind winds, just the downdrafts and updrafts. Next time i'll go there and film them landing if we get that more unusual wind to the normal gusts.:)

Gusting 30kts is not that out of the ordinary.

The day earlier this year when the MD of BHX was killed in his car was properly windy. For large parts of the day it was gusting in excess of 70kts in the midlands.

stevehudd....the 757 lands at around 130ish knots, obviously depending on weight, so with wind that strong it will have a grounspeed of only around 100mph.
I know its not relevant to your question, but you mentioned 180 knots, that would be a tad fast.

All the best!!:ok:

50kts, I hope not! That would be way over the limits for a 152 or whatever you were in.

I guess it depends which way the 50 kts is blowing.

Standard day in The Shetlands then....

or at NZWN...

Well i don't know about that, i wouldn't recommend that to anyone.

Tom

NO It was in an EMB145 :p, 180kts, I think I was just adding a bit to it if I was landing in a gusty head wind I would add a bit just to make sure that I dont stall, that's if I was flying it. Saying that if I was flying It I would have flaps 20 and approach of 170 then :) When I was landing my PA28 in florida with winds from the right 14knots gusting 20 I decided on 3/4 flaps :)

In our company, we add half the headwind and all the gust up to 20kts, which is added to our landing speed, which we get from the flight mgt computer. In the 737, the max crosswind landing is 35kts. We have 757s in our company too, and the max crosswind is 45kts.

We can have two warnings about windshear in the cockpit. "Caution Windshear" means you can continue, but "Windshear" is a compulsory go-around. Once done, it is just a question of how much fuel you have if you have another go, or divert.

I was chatting to a 757 captain the other day, and he told me that he had done a landing at Leeds in 45kts of x-wind with gusts over 60kts and explained it was the hardest landing he had done - right on his limit of capability. I guess that's it; if you don't feel safe, go and land somewhere else.

Last winter MAN closed due to the wind after multiple go-arounds. I was speaking to colleagues who diverted to Teeside, and they explained that when they opened the flight deck door after landing, the stench of vomit from the cabin was over-powering....

Microburst
 

Stevehudd - perform a search on the topic of microburst. That should give you some interesting reading.