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Good Airmanship
It is 37 years ago (24 May 1988) that we heard of the South West Airlines Boeing 737-300 TACA Flight 110 that did a dead stick forced landing after a dual flame-out in a thunderstorm in USA.
Initially the pilot was aiming to ditch the 737 into a long canal that was parallel to a levee. At the last minute he saw the area next to the canal was long enough for a dead stick wheels down forced landing so he side-slipped the 737 and landed safely. Later, and after some fuel was removed to make the aircraft lighter, the aircraft was flown off by pilots provided by Boeing and ferried to a nearby airfield. It was later revealed the captain of TACA Flight 110 had only one eye - althought still licensed to fly the 737. This incident was a good example of excellent airmanship. The reason I thought this would be a good story on Pprune Tech Log is that many of the Pprune fraternity reading this forum would not have been born when this incident occurred in 1988. The term Good Airmanship seemed to have been lost in time but that 737 dead stick forced landing by a one-eyed captain is a classic example of good airmanship along side of the Boeing 767 "Gimli Glider'forced landing and the A320 ditching by "Sully' Sullenberger in the Hudson River. Read the story at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TACA_Flight_110 |
In 1988, he was only 29, but with 13,410 flight hours, nearly 11,000 of them in command. His father was a pilot who worked in agriculture (crop-spraying, transporting workers and equipment). As a child, Carlos loved to go with him and his father sat him on his lap and taught him to fly. He never wanted to be anything but a pilot, even flying on his days off. |
Good Airmanship is key.
After I had once again done something in a new and totally incorrect manner. Exasperated flight Instructor with the “Patience Level Low” caution light blazing brightly. ” Fer Gawd’s Sake Albatross Listen Up ……Airmanship is not the Fxxkxxg boat you arrived on! “ Further helpful advice on the subject of , “Aircraft, proper manipulation of controls of, in order to achieve a set goal in an expeditious and correct manner” was then offered in short, succinct sentences. The friendly tapping of a clipboard on the back my helmet emphasized important points. During my career I was blessed with an endless succession of excellent instructors. Thankfully they all had a good sense of humour and accepted a challenge. Fun Daze. I have always remembered those words. “Airmanship is not the boat you arrived on.” Some people never see either the humour or the lesson in those words. |
Good skill and judgement under pressure, dual engine flameout due to thunderstorms, airmanship?
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Airmanship
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Originally Posted by Centaurus
(Post 11962402)
This incident was a good example of excellent airmanship.
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Originally Posted by PENKO
(Post 11963413)
Or were the crew and their passengers just very fortunate they flamed out near a huge empty grass levee?
From wikipedia: Dárdano agreed and, using sideslip to reduce speed while dropping the altitude necessary to reach the narrow grass levee, successfully carried out an emergency landing of the crippled plane. |
Thumbs up to the crew, they dug themselves out of a very big hole. But is that the only definition of airmanship?
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Its not all abouit landings though is it- what about the Olympic 747 that had a dual engine failure on take off at Athens and had to be literally balanced on a knife edge of building speed at low altitude while just keeping above buildinss and hills??
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From what I've read, I don't believe that's an accurate characterisation. But sources seem slightly messy and contradictory.
Engine 3 failed during rotation. The crew misinterpreted the loss of water injection on the failed engine 3 as meaning they had run out of water, and cut the water injection to the other three engines, significantly degrading thrust. Thrust was also not set to go-around thrust levels after the engine failure. (ASN says the water injection was erroneously turned off before engine 3 failed and this caused the engine to overheat and fail, but this is inconsistent with the Boeing letter and my understanding of the physics of water injection) Remaining thrust was barely sufficient to keep them straight, level, and not-stalled; there was no significant climb or acceleration until the thrust levers were advanced further. It looks like the remaining injection water was dumped rather than injected? I would very much like to see the original FDR traces referred to in the letters but have not found a source. TL;DR great airmanship from the pilots with thrust present; not so good from the F/E engine management. |
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