Hat tip to the FlightSchoolList.com for posting this video compilation of some very scary windy landings. I guess the only think worst than being a pilot of one of these aircraft would have been being a passenger on board!
Landing and takeoff videos from Lukla: The world’s scariest airport
Lukla, the tiny air strip that is the gateway to Mount Everest in Nepal, easily ranks as one of the scariest airports in the world to both land at and take off from. After all, Lukla is at 2,860 metres (9,380 ft) with a runway width of 20 meters and an incline that is a staggering 11,75° (almost 20%) that leads to a cliff. To further complicate matters, no landing aids are available while ATC is limited to AFIS (Aerodrome Flight Information Service).
As you can see in this first video, an aircraft landing at Lukla will need to go from 150 knots to (hopefully) a complete stop in just seven seconds:
That also means that a takeoff from Lukla is equally tricky:
Finally, here is a cockpit view of a takeoff from Lukla:
Landing on an unimproved soft field leads to problems
General Aviation News will often reprint excerpts from US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident reports, including this August 2009 report (NTSB Identification: WPR09CA421) that involved an Air Cam in Hamilton, Montana that had performed a soft field landing on an unimproved surface.
According to the accident report, a pilot was performing takeoffs and landings on a river sandbar without incident until the last landing. At this point, a main landing gear wheel separated after an attachment weld sheared and according to witnesses, the wheel rolled towards them and then into the river.
The pilot then performed a go-around but when he landed back at the departure airport, he could not maintain directional control of the aircraft. Hence, the aircraft hit objects and suffered substantial damage to its right fuselage (but there were no injuries).
The probable cause of the accident was ruled the separation of the right main landing gear wheel after contact with soft terrain while a contributory factor was the pilot’s decision to land on an unimproved soft field surface. In other words and if you plan to make any soft field landings or take-offs, make sure that you know how good the surface is that you plan to use.
Amazing video of how NOT to land a Cessna Citation 2
Hat tip to FlightSchoolList.com for posting this amazing video of a Cessna Citation 2 attempting to make a downwind landing at what appears to be full throttle on a wet Atlantic City runway. The aircraft ended up in the water at the end of the runway (luckily no one was hurt in the incident) but watch what happens in the video at about the 3 minute mark…
Even more entertaining than the commentary provided by the eyewitnesses are all of the comments that have been posted on YouTube about the incident.
Certainly the video raises A LOT of questions about the judgment of the pilot and whoever hired him to fly one expensive aircraft!
Sightseeing pilot forgets to retract the landing gear
General Aviation News will often reprint excerpts from accident reports from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), including this one from April 2009 that is well worth keeping in mind should you ever take friends or family up for a sightseeing flight.
According to the excerpt, a Cessna 210 was on a two hour scenic tour flight when it returned to Moab, Utah to land. At that point:
The pilot had established the airplane on final approach and had added the initial increment of flaps for landing when he banked the airplane to point out an area of interest to his passengers. He input full flaps for landing and but did not check to make sure that the landing gear was down. The airplane landed on the runway with the landing gear retracted.
Luckily there were no injuries but the aircraft did have substantial damage.
Of course, the cause of the accident was ruled the pilot’s failure to lower the landing gear just before attempting to land. Moreover, the pilot’s self-induced distraction when he decided to do a maneuver on the final approach to show his passengers a point of interest also contributed to the accident.
In other words, the next time you take up family or friends up in the air for a sightseeing flight, remember that you still must fly the aircraft. If you want to do sightseeing, be sure you are the passenger and not the pilot!
How to master short field landings
Jason Schappert, the blogger behind the MzeroA site, has recently written a post where he compiled his three videos about short field landings. He also noted that in his most recent video, he took one of his students over Cedar Key for some short field landing practice (and of course, a bite to eat). This video contains mostly raw footage of traffic patterns plus short field landing practice.
Hence and if you think that you will need to do a short field landing at some point as a pilot, all three of Jason’s videos are well worth watching.