SoCal Flyer

Since I have never even touched the controls of any 747, I need some opinions. I must say this crosswind "landing" looks a bit off. Though, the comment section if filled with "wow that pilot is really good!" Was this big bad Korean Air 744 landed safely or was it a near accident?

YouTube - This Pilot Has Skills

Also, notice the windsock at 00:05!

Twin Wasp

It's truely amazing no one balled one up at Kai Tak.

The max demonstrated crosswind for 400 is 30 knots but thats not the problem. Kai Tak's problem was rolling out on final at 200 feet if you did the IGS to 13. I can't find the notes but the gear is designed to land with some crab angle, 20 degrees comes to mind.

What I would comment on is he's got the left wing gear on the centerline when he touches down so he's given up half the runway. And he's got the downwind wing down. That's probably the biggest no-no. There were a whole bunch of engine scrapes doing that. But where he's at, if he trys to level the wings, the boards are going to come up on the right wing and drop it. There have been some quad engine changes done after this kind of landing.

So they walked away and the plane was turned without major maintenance.

PearlPilot

Excuse my ignorance I come from the 172 side. I always thought that in big jets having the downwind wing down is not an absolute necessity. For an example as long as the wheels are aligned (to a certain acceptable degree) with the runway it does not matter if a certain wing was lowered or not, provided that it gives adequate clearance. Also if the pilot were to use a down-wing method this might actually aggravate the situation and cause an engine scrape. Thoughts?

SoCal Flyer

It sure is. But I guess it was shutdown to prevent it, eh?

The new Hong Kong airport looks incredibly easy with that massive runway. Although, I guess the crappy weather makes up for it.

Twin Wasp

PearlPilot,
I think you mean the upwind wing. You really want to be wings level. I can't find the numbers for a 400 but on a Classic you can hit the outboards during a hard landing with 6-7 degrees of bank depending on the pitch.

I think Kai Tak was closed because it was too small.