The phenomenon of wind shear has been much studied in recent years, particularly as aircraft have grown larger and flights more frequent. Particularly during landing, wind shear has caused some very bad aviation accidents and claimed many lives.
The video below shows aircraft landing at Wellington airport in New Zealand in high-wind conditions. The whole thing is of interest to aviation enthusiasts, but the first aircraft shown is what we want to discuss this morning. Notice how wind shear affects it as it crosses over from sea to land at the threshold of the runway. It suddenly drops like a stone! The pilot does well to recover it just before a (rather hard) touchdown, from which the plane almost leaps back into the air as a result of the earlier correction. Wisely, rather than try to force the aircraft down again and crow-hop down the runway, the pilot simply keeps flying, raising his landing gear and going around for another try. If he hadn’t done that, there would have been a strong likelihood of further problems, perhaps escalating to a crash.
I suggest watching the video in full-screen mode.
Some good flying there, under very difficult conditions.
Peter
Bolter!
Some stunning and very mature flying there by the first Air New Zealand pilot. Once, as a passenger, on a QANTAS flight I experienced 3 go-arounds as the pilot tried to land in very bad weather.
Fantastic and calm communication by the pilot and crew but you could tell he was on the border of what he and the plane could do in the current conditions.
Maintence to pilot: "How many stops on the last trip?"
Pilot: No stops. Flew from point "A" to point "B".
Maintence: "Then how do you explain the records show the gear cycled 9 times?"
I've been the paeeenger on several "missed approach" flights. Several at McCarran in Las Vegas. Not a big deal after the first time.
I've also been on a few flights where the pilot decided to force a landing. No fun. Like dropping 50 feet straight down and you pray the gear doesn't exit through the top of the wing. I call them "brown-stain" landings.
Reminds me of Lajes in the Azores… Throw in 'that' environment with a cliff face, and a cliff to the left of the runway… Scary landings to put it mildly… USAF got to the point they wouldn't even ATTEMPT an approach if the weather was not good.
Yikes! I'm going to be flying in and out of Wellington for the first time in July, i.e. winter. It's a fascinating runway, bounded by water on both ends, I guess because that was the only flat land they could find thereabouts. Freaky winds though – they've been known to flip a *taxiing* Cessna…