Scary Plane Landings: Video Of Dusseldorf Airport Landings

Mental note to self: Don't ever fly into Dusseldorf.

Sure, as soon as my ass lets go of the seat.

whew

I was supposed to have flown into Dusseldorf this week and after seeing this, am extremely glad I won't have to make the trip as those kinds of landings are just too much for me.

Unfortunately they weren't giving out T shirts.
Or maybe that WAS fortunate.
I'd have a few drawers full of T shirts.


Memory gets dimmer with the years (I retired in '99) but I think the effective crosswind limit for the 747 was 30-35 knots.
A steady state wind was a bit easier to handle than gusts.
And it always seemed to be gusty.


'Crab' into the wind until touchdown and then kick out the crab with rudder.

IIRC, Condor is (was?) a German charter carrier?

Anyway, once you got to the gate and shut 'er down, you and the mechanic would VERY CAREFULLY inspect the tires.
Those kind of landings really take a toll on the rubber.

...that is less than the manufacturers maximum demonstrated crosswind component landing. I'm wondering if some charter operations have any limit whatsoever. Perhaps insurance requirements specify some limit, but I'm guessing here.

I don't remember what the maximum crosswind landing I've ever done is. I used to write the number down in my logbook if I had a nasty one, but I stopped doing that many years ago. I remember doing one in Florida that was 25 kts, but that was right on the coast and the wind was very steady. It was actually a relatively easy landing because I wasn't getting tossed around. Here in Texas they are almost always quite gusty. Fortunately there's an airport near my home airport that has a crosswind runway. I've landed there and waited them out a time or two. I've seen guys do 30 kt crosswind landings in small planes and gusty conditions. I don't have anywhere I need to be that compels me to do that and since I'm paying for my own tires, it's not worth trying. I work at DFW and I've seen the big iron do close to 30 kt crosswind landings a few times. It's pretty interesting to watch. Lots of smoke kicks up and I'm sure they leave a lot of rubber on the runway.

But the numbers escape me now.
Yes, airline limits were generally lower than manufacturers limits.
Little margin of safety and capability of line pilots.
As opposed to Boeing test pilots.

You could see them fighting the crosswind like hell, but still landing more or less in the center of the runway with a soft touch down.

Others on the video, not so good. Remind me to never, ever fly Condor airlines...

What a remarkable feat.