OzSTOC
No Parking Zone! => Off Topic, Off Colour, and non-motorcycle related => Topic started by: ST.George on March 11, 2015, 07:34:04 PM
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A gr8 addition to our aviation museum at Albion Park near Wollongong was a retired 747.
The runway was not built for this size aircraft but the pilot was experienced with short runways and very confident ... And rightly so ...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dGdnzbIwWzQ (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dGdnzbIwWzQ)
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A gr8 addition to our aviation museum at Albion Park near Wollongong was a retired 747.
The runway was not built for this size aircraft but the pilot was experienced with short runways and very confident ... And rightly so ...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dGdnzbIwWzQ (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dGdnzbIwWzQ)
I read they trained on a simulator for 75 hrs to ensure they got it right. It was a great effort :wink1
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That's a huge amount of preparation by the crew! I heard another figure of 25 hours which still seems a lot.
The length of the runway was obviously a major consideration, but I'm surprised the surface was built to the standard to support the weight of the plane. 179 tonnes at minimum empty weight which I'm sure they would have got it down to as close as possible.
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Here's one form the other end of the run way........plenty of room it seems from the camera angle.
https://youtu.be/44FupFmc2Go
And this one form the side.......good view of the rear wing and the flaps etc at maximum but it seemed while landing he never used reverse thrust from what I could tell
https://youtu.be/qanZt8b5PRM
I know when I used see these approach the Adelaide runway it seemed they were just about ready to fall out of the sky as they were going so slow (or so it seemed) compared to the smaller 737
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Yep, just flaps and speed brakes deployed, the deflectors on the engines remained closed.
Very nice landing, shallow angle so limited impact on touchdown.
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Yep, just flaps and speed brakes deployed, the deflectors on the engines remained closed.
Very nice landing, shallow angle so limited impact on touchdown.
I wonder why they didn't use the reversers. Obviously they had it worked out they didn't need to, but in a tight situation like this you tend to use what you got. Maybe they had them in reserve. The wheel brakes would have copped a flogging, I'd reckon.
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The wheel brakes would have copped a flogging, I'd reckon.
But they weren't going to ever use them again.
In 1991 a United Airlines Boeing 747 made an emergency landing at Wellington airport, NZ, after its intended destination, Auckland Airport, was closed by fog. It was estimated that if the plane had continued to its planned alternate destination, Christchurch, it would have had an unacceptable 15 minutes of fuel on board. Wellington isn't the world's longest runway, it's 1815 metres long and built across a narrow peninsular. Up until that time only 737s and 747SPs had used it, later 767s were able to use it but it was never qualified for a 747.
To get the 747 out again UA had to unload all the luggage and freight and send that to Auckland on charter flights, and half the passengers were flown on other flights. I remember watching that 747 take off from Wellington airport from the hills above Wellington on the day it flew out. It seemed so huge as it wheeled out over Wellington Harbour, no plane of similar size has ever flown into and out of that airport.
When I was young, my dad took me to the opening of Wellington airport in 1959. An RAF Vulcan delta bomber came in to land, touched down just short of the runway and ripped it's left landing gear off. The pilot pulled that immense white plane up and climbed away leaving four long black smoke trails straight up into the sky. He landed the plane at the RNZAF base a hundred km or so north, held the plane up until the wing lost lift and the plane dropped down on to it's belly on the runway. It took months for it to be rebuilt and fly back out to the UK. On the way home from the airport opening we went passed the air force base, and you could see the plane like a huge white whale stranded on the runway.