A350 at Stornoway
 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...lands-37998490

Interestingly not in Iceland for a change!
Also noting the crab angle. The Airbus I fly states; the flight crew can land the aircraft with a partial de-crab up to 5 degrees!

Now that's what I call a touch-and-go - the nosewheel didn't even touch down!

It's hard to judge the exact crab angle from a photo taken a long way away with a very long lens.

If you're looking straight down the runway it's pretty simple to estimate the drift angle regardless of the length of your lens, and only slightly more difficult if your view is offset.

Touch & go, that was almost no more than a bounce!

Dreadful. The shock to the gear...

I won't even start...

fantom

Have you considered the possibility that the Airbus pilots might know what they are doing?

Is this a stupid question?
If the strong cross winds are frequent, shouldn't they have laid out the runway differently?

Or maybe an additional runway, the old RAF WWII triangle had its reasons.

Keflavik is unavailable for such test flights at present, I believe, while its runways are reworked...

Canute,

Have you considered the possibility that I have trained more pilots on their very first flights in the REAL aircraft (320 and 330) than you have had hot dinners?

Sorta like this?

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/...848692!6m1!1e1

Seems unlikely...

We used 07/25 occasionally in the Budgie days, but I'm not sure that the third side of the triangle remained in use even then.

To quote from both the Boeing 787 and B777 Flight Crew Training Manual:

The airplane(sic) can land using crab only (zero sideslip) up to the landing crosswind guideline speeds.

It goes on to mention that it is not recommended in strong crosswinds on a dry runway but purely for the reason that the aircraft lateral deviation on touchdown in this condition is large.

While it is clear that the stresses on the undercarriage when landing like this are large clearly the design caters for such stresses. It may not look elegant, it may be less comfortable but it is certainly acceptable if the manufacturer says you can do it.

I presume if the aircraft which is the subject of this thread was being operated by Airbus themselves then their airframes are also capable of landing safely with crab.

Fantom,
They'll be better at it than you as they are Airbus test pilots and thus closer to godlike than you will ever achieve

Go on Fantom .... why don't you start.... enlighten us

.... from somebody who has high five figures in A330, 340, 747 TRI/E

I'd happily fly with him - if he thinks landing gears are that fragile, his touchdowns must be super-smooth. :O

Might I humbly proffer that it was likely a deliberate act to test the gear in that exact circumstance?

Good old non-destructive testing in action.

Great looking jet.

Didn't even move the scale in terms of gear performance.
Best regards from a Gloucester based landing gear engineer

OK I give up.