have you ever had a 747 hard landing like this or felt like the pilots had a
crash landing and thought what the hell is going on up there I'm going to
explain a few possible reasons for a very hard landing coming up Hey 74
crew welcome back if you don't know me my name is Kelsey I'm a 747 pilot my
channel 74 gear is all about aviation so whether you're pilot or an
aviation enthusiast consider subscribing in this episode of from the flight deck
I'm going to explain you a few different scenarios as to why your pilot may have
had a very hard landing now some landings are firm on purpose and well
others not so much but nobody's perfect first I should tell
you that every pilot tries to make their landings as smooth as possible
considering the circumstances we know that's how we're judged and we're pilot
so we need to keep our egos inflated actually that would not surprise me and
at the end of this video I'm gonna tell you what I considered this secret to a
pilot who is consistently having good landings so when I was flying passengers
all the time what I love to do after a really smooth landing is I'd open up the
door to the flight deck weighed the flight attendant up and start whispering
so they think it's a secret and I'd say hey we're on the ground and obviously
they would just start laughing and be like yeah whatever it wasn't that great
but I loved doing that now on the other side of that if somebody pounds it in
and I learned this from a friend of mine Jessica who was a training instructor
when I was flying charters she would say well you found it meaning you slammed it
so hard in the runway you didn't know it was coming up first I'm gonna explain
two scenarios in which a pilot may have a firm landing on purpose on a very
short runway the pilots are more concerned about landing and stopping
because of very smooth landing that results wouldn't your plane in the water
and the passengers swimming past you saying did that go the way you thought
it was gonna go nope won't make you feel any better the reason for a harder
landing our shorter runway is no momentum from the plane that goes into
the ground is actually absorbing some of the energy on a very smooth landing the
momentum is more moving forward than verdict
down into the runway to give you an example imagine if you were running and
jumped off a bunch of stairs if you just stopped when you land it you would
absorb all that energy into your feet and it would hurt versus if you hit and
rolled forward it would spread that energy out it's the same for a landing
when you slam a landing into the ground the energy gets absorbed into the tires
and into the plane and therefore decelerates the plane more than a very
smooth landing the plane is more moving forward and if you're thinking Simone
biles does it well we're not all Simone biles another scenario where a pilot may
purposely have a firm landing is any strong crosswind when the winds are not
coming straight down the runway but they're coming at an angle that's called
a crosswind landing a good way for you as a passenger to know that the plane is
going to do a crosswind landing is that the plane is not moving forward like you
did really feel it's moving forward kind of at an angle like this and that is
something that pilots call crabbing and it's called crabbing because we're
moving forward but more laterally like a crab it's not because the pilots had
crabs I don't care what the flight attendants have told you this boy
definitely lying when a pilot is doing a strong crosswind landing they are more
concerned with keeping the plane down the middle of the runway and especially
on larger jets they're concerned with keeping the wings level on touchdown if
the wings are at an angle on a larger aircraft you could have a wing strike
meaning the wing will hit the ground or a pod strike which means the engine hits
the ground obviously both scenarios are very bad for the pilot and for the
aircraft so we are more concerned with keeping the wings level and getting the
plane firmly down on the runway if a pilot were to carry too much speed into
the landing trying to make it smooth what could happen is he could float a
little bit down the runway during that time the win is going to push the
aircraft to the side of the runway and possibly into the grass and you may be
thinking well in a plane like a 747 which is very large and heavy that
probably won't happen and that is not true
ask me how I know now in both circumstances pilots can have a very
smooth landing but especially as the pilot is new on an aircraft they are
gonna usually make more conservative decisions safety is always the number
one concern for every pie so those are two scenarios in which
mother nature played a role in a hard landing now I'm going to explain to you
two pilot induced reasons for a hard landing
my pet peeve is when a pilot pulls the power back too soon on the landing
I feel like Peter in one of my weight earlier videos I explained a way in
which a pilot can make their landings a lot smoother and that's by keeping some
power in until right before the tire touchdown and if the pilot is properly
managing their speed as they come in what will happen is right before
touchdown to pull the power back that keeps the momentum of the aircraft
moving forward more than vertically and that will make for a much smoother
landing but if you keep the power in too long or carry too much speed into the
landing your landing looks like this and that's pretty embarrassing as well if
you pull the power to soon your plane will actually sink from the sky like
this and that's generally what causes a very hard landing with a bounce again
ask me how I know another scenario for a hard landing induced by the pilot is a
failure to flare when a plane is coming in to land you will see the nose pitch
up just a little bit like this when it does that it actually reduces the rate
of descent coming into the runway if you don't flare it all you will
actually pound the aircraft into the runway and if you flare too much like
this that's well equally bad a funny story of me not flaring an aircraft was
when I was doing my initial flights on the crj700 we were flying into LaGuardia
and the captain said to me this is a relatively short runway don't flare and
try to make your landing all soft and smooth we don't have a lot of runway to
use so I said okay so I flew her down and didn't flare and just pounded her
right onto the runway and stopped and we were off really early and we got to the
gate and he says well that's what happens when you don't flare and I said
you told me not to flare he started laughing and realized that I literally
took what he was saying what he was really saying is flare a little bit keep
your landing semi firm but I didn't understand it from the way he had said
it because well I was new for the pilots out there your speed and energy
management is the most important aspect of how to make your landing smooth if
you keep your speed in your skin as you're coming in to land and you are
slowing down on schedule you're gonna have a much smoother landing especially
if you keep that power in till right before the wheels touchdown for
the passengers realize that the pilots up there are doing the very best job
they can to make that landing smooth we understand that's what we're judged on
however I've been walking off a plane and I've heard passengers make little
remarks to the pilots like hey maybe you should learn how to fly don't be that
guy and what's the secret to a pilot having good consistent landings swagger
I think landings are about 90 percent science and 10 percent swagger swagger
is confidence and you gain that confidence by always challenging
yourself to be better flying in different scenarios and doing different
landings that you may not feel a hundred percent comfortable with but challenging
yourself to always be better is going to improve your abilities to fly and that
will make you more confident and make your landings much better and long run
and realize even if the flight attendants give you a nickname like like
mr. bumpy landing every pilot has gotten into a rut where they've had bad
landings the same as a professional athlete so don't worry about it I used
to have a flight attendant always used to bid to fly with me because she said I
had the best landings I took a couple weeks off and when I got back to flying
she was on my trip and the first two or three landings weren't bad they weren't
great but they weren't bad and at one point she opened the door and was like
what the hell is going on up there all right crew that's everything I have
on very hard landings if you're a passenger I want you to leave me a
comment and section below let me know did you realize how much the
pilots were keeping into account when they were coming in to land the aircraft
and pilots I want you to let me know what you remember as your very favorite
landing let me know what plane you were flying and what Airport you're flying
into or if you're like me I'm gonna put my top two I look forward to hearing
from you until then keep the blue side up
and that's by keeping the speed in control keeping the speed in control for
the pilots out there your speed and energy manage it