Hard landing during recurrent line check
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
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Originally Posted by Wizofoz
Sorry, current instructor here- and you'd HAVE to include "Aircraft not written off"!!
It's quite possible to meet your criteria and break the fuselage in two!
there is certainly too much emphasis on smooth touchdowns, and a firm touchdown meeting you criteria is ideal, but the ROD HAS to be reduced to an acceptable level.
It's quite possible to meet your criteria and break the fuselage in two!
there is certainly too much emphasis on smooth touchdowns, and a firm touchdown meeting you criteria is ideal, but the ROD HAS to be reduced to an acceptable level.
That said, if the landing was indeed hard enough to obviate a write up in the log book, then I would probably have a second thought about the "passability" (to coin a word) of the line check.
After all, the point of being professional is to leave the airplane serviceable for the next guy.
Let's take another example: experienced Capt with no prior incidents but during a line check he taxis off the paved surface, runs over a couple blue lights and gets stuck in the mud. It's a nice day, good weather and good pavement markings. He just had a lapse in judgment and the result is a slightly damaged airplane that is now GROUNDED.
Sorry, but I'm afraid this is going to be bad news for the Capt.
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Join Date: May 2004
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judgement, numbers, findings, equations
"The pilots rated it as just the wrong side of firm, possibly generating some 'bad FDAP numbers'."
The pilots were confident that it was unlikely to be a damage causing touchdown.
The mechanic's inspection did not find anything.
BTW:
My understanding of the 'sink rate' parameter is that it is not simply the vs, but involves a more sophisticated calculation - it is a measure of the landing gear's rate of closure with the ground and resolves both the translationary motion of the airplane (= ~vs) and also the angular velocity of the ldg gr, i.e. rotation about lateral axis, due to the landing flare.
The pilots were confident that it was unlikely to be a damage causing touchdown.
The mechanic's inspection did not find anything.
BTW:
My understanding of the 'sink rate' parameter is that it is not simply the vs, but involves a more sophisticated calculation - it is a measure of the landing gear's rate of closure with the ground and resolves both the translationary motion of the airplane (= ~vs) and also the angular velocity of the ldg gr, i.e. rotation about lateral axis, due to the landing flare.
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What's the corporation culture/standards?
Apparently the check airman had to make an immediate 'yes' or 'no' answer. Perhaps he decided on 'no' because he didn't have the capability to evaluate the last 100 landings as apparently further investigation actually did. Apparently further review showed it to be a random event.
Apparently the check airman had to make an immediate 'yes' or 'no' answer. Perhaps he decided on 'no' because he didn't have the capability to evaluate the last 100 landings as apparently further investigation actually did. Apparently further review showed it to be a random event.
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Indeed, I had this very problem on a check flight.
I found the candidate "unsatisfactory", not because of the hard landing, but his thrust management on late final left an energy deficit which was inadequate to sustain the flare properly. It was this lack of judgement which needed attention [and was solved!], not necessarily a landing issue.
G'day
I found the candidate "unsatisfactory", not because of the hard landing, but his thrust management on late final left an energy deficit which was inadequate to sustain the flare properly. It was this lack of judgement which needed attention [and was solved!], not necessarily a landing issue.
G'day
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I don't think that (in the US regulation anyway) there is a prescribed amount of time in which one has to make a decision, "traditionally" the pass/fail is assigned at the end of the flight. But in an unusual circumstance I don't think anyone in their right mind would hold it against a check airman who is unsure of something to ask their peers/superiors, and if still unsure to discuss the matter.
