Thread: Q for the pilots…..

Originally Posted by austastar

Don't need a penis to fly an aeroplane.

No, but flaps certainly help.

There's a joke about the stick shaker in here somewhere.

Unless the slope is no more than slight ALWAYS take off downhill !!!

For some reason we hardly ever see contrails in Brisbane, but I can see them this morning and IIRC yesterday as well.

Depends on everything.

This airoprt is so steep that there are no options. And the go around situation is pretty sketchy to non existent.

Knowing my luck i'd open the throttles and get rolling and remember the control lock was on.

Probably the most interesting airfield I have been into (not as pilot in command) is Nuku in the Toricelli Mountains in PNG. As with all sloped airstrips, land uphill, takeoff downhill.

My trip in was in the RH seat of a Cessna 402. The airstrip is up the side of a valley, and the approach is over the ridge on the other side of the valley. There is a village on the crest of the ridge, but in the middle of it is a gap about 30m wide with no buildings.

As we approached, with wheels and flaps down, props full fine, at about 100kts. We cleared the ridge by perhaps twenty feet, and as soon as the ridge flashed under us, the pillot closed the throttles and started a steep sideslip to increase the angle of descent, straightening out about 500ft from the threshold, before making a perfect touchdown - and immediately gave both engines full throttle, only throttling back as we approached the parking spot. As he pointed out - if you let it stop, you need to get the station tractor to tow the plane to the top. And you park crossways, not relying on the brakes to hold on that slope.

I have flown myself into a number of sloping strips in PNG, but none quite like that one.

(One we did not use in the same area, was MaiMai. This strip was built in the 1930s, and we only used it for helicopters. It was short, as well as sloped.

Originally Posted by Barraman

It depends, but as a general rule:
1) TO and LAND into wind
2) TO downhill, LAND uphill (even if it means landing with a tailwind)

That said, the only time I have thought I was going to bend a aeroplane was landing uphill with a tailwind!

I surmise this is as a headwind translates into a higher airspeed over the wings.

Originally Posted by RANDLOVER

I surmise this is as a headwind translates into a higher airspeed over the wings.

Yes. The speed at which an aircraft becomes airborne at is a direct function of the velocity of air over the wings, which is the vector sum of the aircraft ground speed and the wind velocity. Also depends on air density, which mostly translates into elevation above sea level and temperature, and to a minor extent on barometric pressure at sea level and humidity. And, of course, the aircraft design, flap settings and loaded mass.

How much runway it takes to reach this takeoff speed depends in turn on the aircraft design, available engine power (which in turn depends on air density and sometimes temperature), runway surface, and runway slope.

As can be seen, significant calculations must be made by the pilot before every takeoff, especially if the runway length available is short enough that safe takeoff is uncertain.

In the case of takeoff from an aircraft carrier, the speed of the ship is also a significant factor, as is the ship's catapult.