great read. gave me nice break from work :-) what I found most interesting actually is not so much the landing but the fact that right after the landing the printer spit out a damage report. quite impressive. is that the case with all issues?

It looks like the A330 is the easiest plane to land and Airbus is the best or A330 pilots are amazing... Because I always see very smooth landings with the A330 . Why is that? Fly-by-wire?

The A330 behaves like any other Airbus when landing, some days you will get a cruncher other days it will be smooth. The main thing the A3xx FBW does in landing is memorizes and takes a snapshot of the aircrafts pitch at 50ft and then slowly reduces the pitch so you can flare like a conventional airacft. Did anyone read about the fake air india pilot who landed her A320 on it's nose wheel? Lets just say she's not going anywhere near another aircraft anytime soon... http://www.theage.co...0324-1c87d.htmlRegards

Fa

The A330 behaves like any other Airbus when landing, some days you will get a cruncher other days it will be smooth. The main thing the A3xx FBW does in landing is memorizes and takes a snapshot of the aircrafts pitch at 50ft and then slowly reduces the pitch so you can flare like a conventional airacft.

Fascinating stuff. I have watched plenty of A330 flares on IRL or on youtube, and they always look so smooth and calculated, way too calculated to be done by a human, they are just perfect in the few seconds before main gear contact.Now I know why!See this video, and look at how long it takes the 2nd set of main gear tires to contact the ground. I saw a flare just like this at KPHL last year.

I always come back to this video as setting the bar a little higher for smooth landings.

edit: ooh, you just beat me to it..

Keep in mind I was talking about manually landing the A3xx. Like all other airliners the autoland is designed to be fairly firm/heavy since the aircraft has no way of knowing if the runway is dry or wet/slippery, it will always land as if the runway is wet. So if you feel a smooth landing on a nice sunny day then it is very likely one of the guys up front was in control.

I always come back to this video as setting the bar a little higher for smooth landings.

edit: ooh, you just beat me to it..

I think Concorde also land very smoothly...

Slightly off topic, but seeing as this seems to be a thread on airline pilots and their lives, just looking at this video, how can the airlines employ pilots for such little money in the states? Surely something can't be right about this?I mean, compared to the salaries listed here: http://www.pilotjobs..._(ROI_Contract)the starting salaries are multiples of 3 or 4 times some of those wages listed. I'm interested to hear your opinions on this. I know EIN is a legacy carrier and all that, but I mean there can't be that big a gap.

Edited December 11, 201114 yr by Chase Kreznor
Removed reference and video link.

I bet that avsim can do something about it. Or maybe even PMDG

Good point thanks, didn't think of that. Reported the post to the moderators so hopefully they can edit out that section of the comment.Rónán.

Perhaps I'm missing something here... Where is your name mentioned? We can't edit YouTube files, so all we could do is remove the video entirely from the forum?Edit: Disregard, I found what you were talking about and took out the reference in the timing of the video.

Perhaps I'm missing something here... Where is your name mentioned? We can't edit YouTube files, so all we could do is remove the video entirely from the forum?

I'm fine with the video being there, it's the line in there forum where it states the time I appear which I'd like removed if possible....Ró.Edit: Thanks, I see the line has been removed, much appreciated.

Edited December 11, 201114 yr by Rónán O Cadhain

And the others taken care of too.

Again, thank you, much appreciated And now to deal with the fact that my salary has been posted for everyone to see Ah well, I guess that that's public information so there's nothing that can be done about it in the long run haha. Interesting debate though on how little some pilots in the us are paid. It always puts things into perspective when you roll up to a gate and know that you probably make 10 times as much as the man sat in the plane on your left. I'd buy them guys a coffee if I was on-board, god knows they need it. The race to the bottom is quite unusual in that many airlines in Europe that pay their pilots "proper" salaries can be some of the most profitable, even look at SWA in the states who are highly unionised yet treat their pilots with dignity and respect. Salaries only make up a very small portion of the actual cost of running a flight, the majority is spent on fuel, and charges. It won't be until the day that passengers speak with their feet though that we see much of a change in the situation state-side...

Seeing this I wonder whether I should pick Ryanair for my next transatlantic flight, business class of course :-)http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=DE&v=DEe27yQemoE