New 767 touch down record

[Kevin Hester]

Ive been trying for months and months to get better on my landings and I finally beat my old record of -70FPM on a landing.
The flight was DHX 1876 from KJFK - KLAX tail number N746AX.

Heres the log details:

===== General =====
FS Version: FSX (FS10)
GCP Version: v2.2.5
Pilot Name: Kevin Hester
Pilot No: 1830

====== Flight Data ======
FS Date: 2008/12/03
Aircraft Title: Level D Simulations B767-300ER
Flight No: DHX1876
KJFK - KLAX
Tail No: N746AX
Cargo: 58522
Departure: KJFK at 18:50z
Weight at Takeoff: 328549 (0 Kg)
Takeoff Weather:
Visibility: 50
Wind: -108 at 5 kts
Temperature: 0C

Alternates-
Takeoff:
Enroute:
Destination:

Destination: KLAX at 00:53z
Weight on Landing: 272940 (0 Kg)
Landing Weather:
Visibility: 2
Wind: 0 at 4 kts
Temperature: 16C

====== Fuel Summary ======
Out: 75025 (0 Kg)
Off: 72350 (0 Kg)
On: 16739 (0 Kg)
In: 16268 (7379 Kg)
Taxi Out: 0 (0 Kg)
Burn: 0 (0 Kg)
Taxi In: 0 (0 Kg)
Total Fuel: 58757 (0 Kg)

======= Time Summary (Zulu) =======
Out: 18:50
Off: 19:05
On: 00:50
In: 00:53
Total Time: 06:03

====== Misc. Data ======
Max Sim Rate: 1
Touchdown Rate: -3
Distance: 2143
Stall Warning Activated: No
Overspeed Warning Activated: No

I never seen a touchdown rate that low so Id figure I would post the log.

[dave colavecchio]

Like a butterfly with sore feet!!!

[nwadc10]

Like a butterfly with sore feet!!!

Who are you again??

I found a bug in GCP that incorrectly reports a very smooth touchdown if the actual touchdown rate is in excess of -2000 fpm

[Kevin Hester]

Well considering I leave crash detection turned on a touchdown rate of more than -1000FPM would give me some problems......
I was keeping an eye on that V/S gauge though and it was almost at 0FPM when the main gear touched down.

[rav72]

Great landing indeed, hats off Having said this I remember when I finally managed to get really down with my tough landings some time ago and told my pal about it. According to him in real world when your landing rate is too low it's not too good. Justin, could you please comment on this?

Ralf

[Brogs]

Your gonna need a long r/way, if your at the threshold at that descent rate your flying a Harrier !

[peter]

kevin

nice landing - question

I see you are FSX. i downloaded Level D 767 and found no freight models or any leverys except for Varig and then when i looked in side the passenger section it was blank - I asked for my money back.

Are you flying DHL livery - where did you get it?

[mlegein]

Are you flying DHL livery - where did you get it?

You can download the DHL liveries from our website (Fleet section).

[peter]

Michel

thanks for reminding me about the download - what location ( filename) do i zip it to?

[yoni63]

Great landing indeed, hats off Having said this I remember when I finally managed to get really down with my tough landings some time ago and told my pal about it. According to him in real world when your landing rate is too low it's not too good. Justin, could you please comment on this?

Ralf

Ralf, the problem is if your vertical speed is low, your obviously going to float, uses lots of runway as someone said, lots of brakes, etc etc. It can also be hard on the fence down at the end of the runway area sometimes! LOL. If someone is concentrating on their vertical speed indicator at touch down, they don't need to worry about the fence because soon enough one of a hundred things is going to catch up with them

[rav72]

Great landing indeed, hats off Having said this I remember when I finally managed to get really down with my tough landings some time ago and told my pal about it. According to him in real world when your landing rate is too low it's not too good. Justin, could you please comment on this?

Ralf

Ralf, the problem is if your vertical speed is low, your obviously going to float, uses lots of runway as someone said, lots of brakes, etc etc. It can also be hard on the fence down at the end of the runway area sometimes! LOL. If someone is concentrating on their vertical speed indicator at touch down, they don't need to worry about the fence because soon enough one of a hundred things is going to catch up with them

What I mean is that if your vertical speed is too low it's basically considered as an error. If I'm not mistaken the 150fpm is generally the target and a firmer landing is preferred on wet/cluttered rwys or with significant crosswind.

Ralf

[yoni63]

I would agree with that view. Though a soft landing is nice, I remember one of my IP's told me once after I had floated a really nice landing "Nice landing, but next time, lets land the aircraft, not have foreplay."

Not knocking anyone's attempts at soft landings here at all as this is FS, and by all means, that rate of decent was an excellent job! But it does make sense to get the aircraft down firmly and allow that transition from a flying vehicle to a ground vehicle to take place. Nice to do when in a 172 or something and you have all the room in the world.

[nwadc10]

Pretty much everything I would have said about this topic has been covered between Ralf and Bryan With that said, if it appears you are going to float outside the touchdown zone, it's an automatic go-around. On some occasions while trying to make a smooth touchdown I've come close to exceeding the first 3000' of the runway and have had to give up on the smooth touchdown. In that case I lower the nose a bit to force the touchdown. That often occurs in gusty winds where additional speed is carried on top of Vref intentionally.

Kevin has bragged to me about his touchdown rate before . In those cases I asked him if he floated much thinking the same thing that you guys have been discussing. He says he didn't float. Now, he has a lot of time in the 767 and I think he's one of our better 767 pilots so I can believe that he flared and touched down properly. As I tell my captains when they compliment my landings, "sometimes you just get lucky"

[Kevin Hester]

I never float any aircraft on landings as I don't want to risk stalling. Ive started to play around with the decent rate on finals and on that approach I dipped a bit below the G/P on purpose and re stabilized the approach with a -500FPM decent rate at 1000FT AGL ( the obstacles and terrain weren't a factor on this approach ). I was back on the correct G/P by minimums and flared at 30FT AGL. I pulled the nose up slowly and decreased the throttle slowly. IE at 10FT AGL I was still pulling the nose up. This put me right in the touchdown zone of that runway with a decent rate of -3FPM. I'm flying another 763 route now and I'm going to try this again going into EGNX.

My last filed flight into KIAH the landing was done with the A/P so thats why the touchdown rate was higher .

BTW I have a little over 3,500 logged hours in the 763 in both FS9 and FSX.

[nwadc10]

Ive started to play around with the decent rate on finals and on that approach I dipped a bit below the G/P on purpose

Ooooh, you better hope the vFAA isn't watching this board It's illegal to intentionally go below the GS "except for normal bracketing maneuvers" (which I wouldn't classify this as).

It's good to experiement, it's done in the real world all the time. There's usually a better way to do a particular maneuver, it just hasn't been discovered yet. The chase of perfection, eh?

A steeper glide path on approach will actually reduce the amount of float, even at higher than Vref speeds. However, the chance of a stiff landing also goes up. A flat approach will yeild generally a smoother touchdown but a lot of float, even if right at Vref in many cases. Can anyone tell me why this is the case?