In article
,
dpb wrote:

On Jan 16, 8:21 am, Smitty Two
wrote:
...
As far as the pilot being a hero, sure, he did
a nice job. Any pilot
could have easily done the same thing. Planes
fly perfectly well
without engine power. Only caveat is, they fly
a descending course.
...

That's utter BS about "any pilot" and "easily".
The descending
course from perhaps 8000-ft over the city that
Airbus was "flying
perfectly well" w/o power is mostly flying just
a little better than
a rock-- they're not gliders.

That one would hope that any commercial pilot
would be capable of the
feat is comforting thought if one flies;
reality is far different.
Even whether this guy could duplicate the
result is probably 50:50 at
best; undoubtedly his chances of getting it to
the ditching spot
would be pretty good but the ditching itself
would be a crapshoot to
come off that well.

The guy was outstanding (and I suspect, if
asked, would say had some
luck on his side to boot)...

--

Uh huh. Obviously you aren't a pilot.

Wow, and obviously, neither are you! Most
"commercial" aircraft will do as you suggest,
under proper circumstances and pilot control, but
not all, on top of the hundreds, probably
thousands of mitigating circumstances to each and
every such situation.

Yep, planes *are* gliders. Every
single one of them, regardless of size. They
absolutely fly perfectly
well without power. If they didn't, you'd never
be able to land one.

No, that's not so either. A plane with sufficient
speed and altitude, MIGHT, with proper control, be
able to "glide" into a landing. But the instant
'stall speed' arrives, that plane becomes a rock.
With luck, you'll have enough altitude to put it
nose down until you get the speed you need, and
then with more luck, the controls will withstand
the pressures of pulling the plane out of the
dive and add another few minutes of flying time.
And it's not how they land, either; there is no
"gliding" involved. In fact, they are under full
power during landing, slowed down by things like
lowered flaps and other surfaces that act as air
brakes, until position position speed and altitude
are such that the landing can be accomplished.
Still under power, the speed decreases until near
"stall" speed is achieved, and the plane falls the
last few feet onto the runway. Why do they do it
under power? Because then if there is a ground
problem, they still have the power available to go
around and try again. Jet engines do NOT
accelerate quickly; it takes time to get the
engines spinning fast enough again, if the landing
has to be aborted; so, they're kept spinning and
other means are used to slow down.


The fact that he was at 8000 ft, if he was,
makes the off-field
landing easier: more time to select a landing
spot and maneuver to it.

8,000 ft is very low for a plane to "glide" very
far. The engines may be 2-blocked but the plane
isn't flying level, it's climbing, and it's speed
isn't yet high. It's going to slow down quickly
without an engine and when it reaches the stall
speed, it becomes a rock; at 8k ft there's not
enough altitude to do a nose down to regain lost
speed. It's a fast thinking person who makes the
decision to try to hit the most likely reachable
spot that saves lives. A single miscalculation
and many people are likely to be dead.

In addition to all this, there are many planes
that, without power, will hit stall speed within
seconds due to their minimal wing areas. These
aren't passenger planes, but they're still planes,
and there's a good reason for the crew having
parachutes and ejection seats at the ready.
Regardless of altitude & pilot experience, losing
power means flailing to the ground very quickly.
Again, it takes a lot of skill to know whether to
abandone a millions of dollars aircraft in time to
get out before the planes spinning/rolling fall
makes evacuation impossible.

I'm quitting because I'll write a book here if not
careful, but ... please, don't try to be so
ignorant and non-chalant about things that can
take so many lives both on the plane and on the
ground. It's a very serious mattern.




Engine outs are so common that in small planes
they aren't even
considered an emergency. Commercial pilots
practice constantly for
such occurrences.