I have to admit... after watching the scientific documentation on CNN for the last 2 hours... pilots are beyond human sometimes!
This crew, the entire crew deserves kudos deluxe! New York, NY, should get a kudos for having water as part of the topography! And the Canada Geese... well they had it coming!
Glad to hear a super happy ending to a truly remarkable situation!
And Doc, I raise my glass with you!
And don't attack me for this comment... I just found it profoundly crazy that Pres. Bush had his last tv apparence from the oval office today... this guy just can't catch a break! Media (CNN) barely covered it because of the miracle on the Hudson River!
Any bets that if the pilots had been born in Canada they'd have made a runway? ... two for two and all...
Nice work keeping everybody alive!
That vacation footage of the widebody cartwheeling into the ocean and breaking apart had me believing that keeping the a/c in one piece would be next to impossible. Evidently not eh?
BeechBoy007 wrote:Its a miracle indeed! One of the few heavy jets ever landed in the water without breaking up. I noted flaps and slat devices in deployed position during some TV shots. Awesome.
Job very well done, and just a few wet feet....
I 'm going to offer to finish off this guy's float rating for free at the Amigo Airways Seaplane Academy. He already has the deadstick landing part down just fine.
Kudos US Airways.
So, he only needs 4 more landings, but still needs 5 take-offs to complete his float rating... usually the numbers match
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Bush Man wrote:Hats off to all involved. That being said, I'm pretty F'n sick of watching "Larry King", "Dr. Sanjai Gupta", and "Dr. Phil" weigh in on the matter.....good ol' CNN.....
Absolutely wonderful - when the goose (shit) hits the fan, a well-trained, professional crew like this makes me proud to be an aviator. Just a small, miniscule bit of reflected glory on us all! Well done US Air! Yay crew!
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"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
This successful water ditching is going to be an excellent chance for Airbus and the industry to use as a benchmark for how to perform same, not only will they have the flight recorders and CVR but I bet there will be hundreds of pictures and camcorder records of the final few seconds to touch down.
Two things I am interested in knowing is his nose up pitch attitude at water contact ( for sure he had it perfect by the looks of the airplane after it stopped. ) the other thing I would love to know is when the engines sheared off as I believe they are designed to do so without compromising the wing structure.
The Sim gang are going to have a field day now.
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The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
So after reading the Captains Resume.... I see he has most every rating and all kinds of types on his licence. Only one missing was the seaplane endorsement. I wonder how long it will be before the FAA writes him up for landing on the Hudson with no float rating.... I had to say it....sorry!! Amazing job guys and gals!! You done good! Can't wait to hear the report on flaps slats gear and speeds, as Cat stated, there will be so much to learn from this. It makes you really think a lot about how vulnerable we are in those first few minutes after take off. Another good point that helped this case is that they were probably quite light on fuel heading down to Charlotte. I shudder to think what the outcome might have been with full tanks heading for LA????? Yikes
My first hope is that in the remaining 14 years of commercial flying I never have to deal with anything like this. My second hope is that I could perform half as well as these guys did. Not only dealing with an unexpected glider but also briefing the pax, dealing with the "pinball machine on tilt" lights and bells distraction, atc, etc. Serious CRM.
Another thought. The airplane would have probably been in direct law with RAT supplied hydraulics. Kinda like driving your car with one flat tire and the power steering pump gone. I also would be surprised if they were able to fully deploy the slats/flaps in time. The RAT driven hydraulics are awfully slow to move.
Amazing job. Now the corporate owners of the airline will finish robbing his pension fund and hire a couple of MPL trained pilots to replace him!
buss wrote:Couple of babies.
Should have declared mayday and done a 180. Nobody would be have wet feet.
ya right , over populas areas and HIRO , i hope ur joking . i think he choose a great place to set it down , didn't want to risk any extra time aloft in non-std acft ops , regards for that .
the river offered ample time and space to gently flare and set it down nose high to probably allow the tail section to bleed off some knots with the resistance of the water before the nacelles impacted .
media is reporting both engines out but i guess he lost one and shut the 2nd down once committed as to not introduce any yaw upon the glide in to ditch . again , great ending to this emergency .
Shut one down to prevent yaw? Unless it wasnt producing power what makes you think anyone would shut an engine down? If it was producing power they would not be in the river either!
buss wrote:Couple of babies.
Should have declared mayday and done a 180. Nobody would be have wet feet.
ya right , over populas areas and HIRO , i hope ur joking . i think he choose a great place to set it down , didn't want to risk any extra time aloft in non-std acft ops , regards for that .
the river offered ample time and space to gently flare and set it down nose high to probably allow the tail section to bleed off some knots with the resistance of the water before the nacelles impacted .
media is reporting both engines out but i guess he lost one and shut the 2nd down once committed as to not introduce any yaw upon the glide in to ditch . again , great ending to this emergency .
If it was producing power the other engine would not have been shut down, the 320 like all other jets would easily fly on the remaining engine and they would have made it to an airport. Back to LGA or JFK or other.
Great job done by all the crew ,not just the skipper, who so far has been hailed as the hero.
Was he alone as the f/ o cowered in fear????? Give abit of credit to everyone involved!!!!
the river offered ample time and space to gently flare and set it down nose high to probably allow the tail section to bleed off some knots with the resistance of the water before the nacelles impacted .
One never knows who is reading these forums, for sure the media do from time to time and there is enough miss-information being written in the news media without this type of comment being spread.
The last thing you want to do when ditching is touch down in a nose high attitude because the airplane will pitch violently nose down as the aft end of the aircraft hits the hard surface of the water, that is a recipe for disaster.
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The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
the river offered ample time and space to gently flare and set it down nose high to probably allow the tail section to bleed off some knots with the resistance of the water before the nacelles impacted .
One never knows who is reading these forums, for sure the media do from time to time and there is enough miss-information being written in the news media without this type of comment being spread.
The last thing you want to do when ditching is touch down in a nose high attitude because the airplane will pitch violently nose down as the aft end of the aircraft hits the hard surface of the water, that is a recipe for disaster.
Troubleshot, that is basic physics that has been well understood ever since the first flying boat started porpoising due to having contacted the water tail first due to the nose attitude being to high, it is aggravated if the decent rate is high at water contact.
An A320 fuselage when you look at it from the side looks very much like a flying boat without a sexy bow and a keel on it.
For the sake of this academic discussion the aerodynamics and hydrodynamics of a large jet are almost identical to a flying boat when ditching.
As I opined in an earlier post this incident is going to be a real benchmark for ditching training for the gang who set up the Sim training programs. The actions that that crew performed in a matter of seconds combined with the FDR and the VCR along with thousands of other bits of information will take a long time to put together and become part of Sim training.
Then again I could be way off base on this.
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The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
buss wrote: set it down nose high to probably allow the tail section to bleed off some knots with the resistance of the water before the nacelles impacted .
.
Wouldn't that cause the nose section to slap the water like the tail of a beaver? (the rodent, not the airplane)
edit....sorry Cat, I never got as far as your comments. That's what I was kind of thinking. It's not like the crew can "soak the tail" to bleed off speed. Water ain't that "soft".
Hey ., I think maybe retirement jobs available at FAA and US Airways teaching water landings in the sim. Glassy, rough, and " Normal" conditions...........then a few hours in the Beech 18....LOL.
Attitude, TRIM and speed, ..........
Still can't believe it, fantastic outcome. Not at all like the dolt in the Canary Islands, one wing low and did not keep it tracking STRAIGHT at touchdown. Rudder man, those things on the floor.......!
Anyway, no Twin Otter float flying this morning:
SPECI CYCD 161511Z 00000KT 1SM BR FEW015 BKN110 BKN230 RMK
FG1SF2AC2CI1 VIS SW-NW 15=
Hey there Beechboy, don't get all excited by what I have to say about how things fly I'm getting so absent minded I can't remember where to find my dick.
I'm surprised some of my fans from the flying school industry have not tore into me for posting such uninformed garbage.
Anyhow give me a phone call and we can go have a look at your fleet sometime today.
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The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
20DMEYYZ wrote:
the river offered ample time and space to gently flare and set it down nose high to probably allow the tail section to bleed off some knots with the resistance of the water before the nacelles impacted .
you for real? have you ever jumped a mountain bike or a motocross bike? Land rear first, and front comes crashing down. Not smooth......land boths wheels at about the same nice and it's buttery smooth. Physics.......it's how aircraft work...learn some.
WOW ,that is Airmanship at its best .
Usually you have to be able to use the airplane again to call it an excellent landing,but in this case nobody would argue that to call this less than an excellent landing would be a gross understatement.
New York is a great city ,the speed that the emergency services helped was the best yet.
The speed at which the politicians lined up to take credit for the training was forgivable as the emergency crews did do a great job as well .
Move over . Yeager.America has yet another great aviation hero to share the pedestal of great airmen from that great nation to the south.
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Last edited by 2R on Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
