The Top 40

On behalf of the unruly mob on board - our seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position. Our seat belts are securely fastened and all carry-on luggage is stowed underneath the seats in front of us or in the overhead bins.

Bring it home, Captain, and Thank You.

If that A380 had some Browning M2 50s in the wings, he could get hisself a kill on that Qantas.

There is, for a fact, something deeply disturbing about being on a plane that is landing in a storm, feel the aircraft swerve to the left as you come down on final (you're seeing taxiways pass outside the window), and then the view outside is the runway stripes passing under the plane from the right side.
The thought that passed through my mind was "I wonder if I can see the runway better than the pilot?"
Then the gear touched and we snapped around straight faster than you can imagine. Fortunately that was the last connection on that particular day, and also for quite a while afterwards.

Heh...yah,but the authorities kinda frown on that friendly fire stuff,Bill.

The video takes me back to 1979 when I was a ramp rat (ground crew) working at PHX Sky Harbor airport. Late one afternoon,we're waiting for our bird to arrive when a severe dust storm blew in,closing all runways. After about 20 min the worst of it had blown thru,but winds & dust were still swirling when the tower ok'd the re-opening of the south runway,where we were staged. We had a perfect view as a bright yellow Hughes Airwest MD-80 lined up,then streaked past us,engines thundering,heading east into the dust cloud. He lifted off,and we all held our breath as the tail end of that long fuselage starting crabbing northward from the crosswinds-we could see the dust boiling under the plane. It seemed like time stood still as he slowly straightened and climbed out over the storm-in reality it was only seconds,but we gave heartfelt cheers & applause to that flight crew for an awesome takeoff.

As we used to say in flight school, "Don't fly Chinese" (Won Wing Lo).

Only go-around I ever had as a passenger was coming into Frankfurt Germany in really nasty weather. Never touched the runway because the plane pushed down hard while still over a local neighborhood. I looked up at a tower clock of a building and then the engines went to full and we flew elsewhere.

Had many, many go-arounds a student pilot. All but one because I was still a green stick. But that one was because the tower gave me permission to land immediately after he had given a plane on the ground clearing for takeoff - both of us on the same runway!

As you may imagine, the take-off pilot protested. The tower guy sputtered and choked up. So I keyed my mic, identified myself and informed everyone that I was abandoning my landing and would go around.

Nothing remotely dangerous took place, but it certainly reinforced my understanding that it does not pay to trust other people with your life. A healthy skepticism of their abilities and skills is a good thing.

In the transports I flew in the '50s-'60s it was optional to use crab or wing low in crosswinds. I, and everyone I ever knew, always used wing low because we thought it was easier to stay aligned, less passenger discomfort, and less stress on the airframe at touchdown. I guess with these modern airplanes being built so low to the ground, and the engines slung underneath, the wing low method probably is not an option.

The most modern airliners have landing gear that can be steered straight down the runway while the aircraft crabs in flight into the wind. You can see this a couple of places in the video. The planes can actually land with the nose pointed several degrees left or right while the wheels are right down the center line.

(Looks at watch, taps foot...) Well?? ;-)

In about 2003 I was riding in a 747 from Minneapolis to Nagoya. There was a typhoon and we circled around quite a while, hoping the weather would clear. Eventually the 747 decided to land in Osaka. We came below the cloud cover and I could see other planes in front of us also preparing for a landing at the airport that was a man made island about a mile off the coast and into the sea. The 747 banked hard as it had to do a 180 to get its nose to the wind for the landing. It banked so hard that my computer bag slid on the floor of the plane. Planes were landing and I could see emergency vehicles with flashing lights driving out to the runway. I figured someone's plane was in trouble. As we finally approached and landed all those emergency vehicles followed us down the runway. The folks in trouble were apparently us. The hard bank makes sense now in that the pilot planned on landing the first go around and my best guess is that we were quite low on gas.

Soon.... they keep tellingme soon....but....