Originally Posted by
Regularguy
First I have over 35 years doing this stuff and mostly in Boeings. The 727 (strectch & Advanced) was and is the queen of tailstrikes and I never hit a one. Why because we rotated slow and flew the airplane into the air.
The tail strikes on the -900ER aren't on takeoff, they're on landing. And most -900ER pilots probably won't experience a tail strike, either. That doesn't mean it's not an issue. When we got 757-300s I know that tail strikes were a big area of concern.
Today the B767-300 and 400 are the queens and again (tail strike less than 9 degrees body angle), never hit a one.
The landing tail contact attitude of a 737-9 is a little over eight degrees. The real problem is tail strikes in the -900ER have occurred with touchdowns of less than six degrees nose up and speeds of greater than Vref minus five. The spoilers deploy, shifting the center of lift forward, the nose pitches up, and voila... tail strike. The pilots might not even know it happened.
I agree with your view that this is a technique issue, but you've got to know it's an issue to emphasize it. Until I flew with an FO who had one, I didn't know we had any tail strikes on the -900ER and assumed if the pitch at touchdown was under eight, you were OK... not so.
For you and all the CAL guys and gals out there the 80 knot "thrust set" call is because the A/T system goes to hold and an abort above this activates RTO and the spoilers. So why 100knots?
In the 737 RTO braking will not occur until 90 knots.