Now THIS is real flying by an AA 757 crew! (Cool video)

[450knotOffice]

My wife found this video and left it up for me to see. I ran it and at first I thought, "OK, another video of an airline crew flying a visual somewhere in Central or South America. No biggie"

Boy was I wrong. The guy at the controls flew an awesome visual approach to touchdown. This is real stick and rudder skill...grab the thing by it's collar and fly it! He has a great sense of how close to the ground he can safely fly. Great situational awareness, as far as I'm concerned.

Joe, Sing, Bluesideup...I thought you guys in particular might get a kick out of this.

I love it.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2030155466

[Zeke]

Why such technique? I see the approach was a difficult one in light of where the strip was. Seems like the hillside gave no room for descent. But why the angle? Big cross winds?

Note: I have no idea how to fly a plane.

[450knotOffice]

I assume you mean touchdown. Yes, he was crabbed into the crosswind from his left during the approach and landing, which only added another layer of difficulty to the approach. Low wing, swept wing airplanes with wing mounted engines can't really land with too much of a wing down slip during the flare and touchdown due to the possibility of dragging the upwind engine pod on the runway, so they usually have to accept some crab angle at touchdown. The main gear are built pretty strong to withstand this sort of side load at touchdown.

[Drew001]

Wish I could see it. I've unblocked everything, but it's not there.
Is there a YouTube equivalent or download?

[450knotOffice]

Not sure. I can try to find it elsewhere. It's an awesome video that you've gotta see.

(dam* man. I just watched this video again! This is one of my favorites of all time, I think)

Woohoo!

[Dantilla]

Pretty cool.

I flew in and out of a small mountain strip today, but I was in a lightly loaded Bonanza. Anybody can look good in a Bonanza. Jets have notoriously slow throttle response, and little room for error. That guy nailed it.

[rick-l]

Is that a scheduled flight? The runway seems way too short.

What do those arrows and the bars at the threshold mean?

[450knotOffice]

Yup. It sure is. You know what those mean (considering you know what a runway threshold is).

Insane airline approach

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[BlueSideUp]

Whoa! That's a great find Scott, the approach looks almost as exciting as Kai Tek except with a left turn instead of right! Whoever is flying that plane definitely earns their paycheck plus some.

I wonder if that runway is shorter than Jackson Hole, Wy. Watching American and United fly in there with the 757 was always impressive. The runway in JAC is 6300' long at 6450'MSL. I think ref on a 75 is normally in the range of 130 to 140kts, making the true airspeed 160kts!

[450knotOffice]

Off topic...your quote copied from JeremyD had me laughing my a$$ off! That has to be the quote of the year!

[nostatic]

notice that he touched down *before* the threshold? Must be a crazy arse short runway. And I wonder at what altitude. Do big jets suffer from density altitude as bad as small ones?

edit: so he says it is toncontin airport. tegucigalpa, honduras. Elevation 1005m. Runway 1863m. No ILS



http://www.azworldairports.com/airports/p1710tgu.htm

[nostatic]

passenger view



and from the virtual flight deck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbaBAOqotLE

[johndglynn]

Wow, that is unbelievable

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by nostatic
notice that he touched down *before* the threshold? Must be a crazy arse short runway. And I wonder at what altitude. Do big jets suffer from density altitude as bad as small ones?

edit: so he says it is toncontin airport. tegucigalpa, honduras. Elevation 1005m. Runway 1863m. No ILS



http://www.azworldairports.com/airports/p1710tgu.htm

Todd,

All airplanes have the same air to fly in, so yes they have the same density altitude issues.

"Goose" as its called in the industry is a difficult airport and surrounded by mountains and hills, so you need special authorization before landing there. What usually happens is that a check-airman flies in the right seat while the guy/gal being checked out flies the airplane. Look at the satellite pic in the link provided and the whole city is in the bowl of a set of mountains, so its a bit "sporty" going in there, especially when bad weather is thrown in.

As everyone can see its a handful and little margin for error there. There has been a lot of accidents here, with most of them being fatal crashes into the mountains while on an approach in bad weather. Guatamala city is about the same.

The airport is at 3300 feet elevation, which is not that high but then you have to factor in that the runway is only 6100 feet long, which is not a whole lot for big airplanes. This is not a runway to try for a smooth landing, its one where you plant it on and get on the brakes, spoilers and thrust reversers immediately.

90% of the time pilots sit there and enjoy the flight. 10% of the time they really work for it and this is one airport where we earn our money.

[widgeon13]

Looks like a carrier landing "controlled crash".

[onewhippedpuppy]

Very nice. Up there with the old Hong Kong airport.

[Brian Cameron]

I was considering Honduras for my next warm weather vacation. Don't think that will be happening now.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Brian Cameron
I was considering Honduras for my next warm weather vacation. Don't think that will be happening now.

Try Belize, Guatamala or Costa Rica. All are very nice (in most places) and not far away.

[rattlsnak]

Someone posted that on FlightInfo a while back. Still very cool.

I went to Telluride last week and got my T-Shirt! (really) Its the highest commercial airport in North America at 9,080', (Leadville is higher, but not commercial) its on a plateau, with peaks all around and drop off cliffs at each end! And of course in and out of Aspen alot this week too, but thats another story!

here is the view coming around the peaks... (airport is next to red line)


on final..


and the view from the easy side!, the way out of the canyon..!