> gMoney wrote: > My dad was a commercial pilot for 30+ years, I remember asking him what > would happen if he lost both engines. He said that you could coast for quite > awhile without any power, and control the plane pretty well as long as all > your ailerons (sp?) were working....and at that point you start looking for > water. >
On a 320 it's 20:1 and the pilot was probably trading airspeed (for control) for altitude. At 3000 feet, he probably had ~ 10 miles before he hit ground. The largest dangers with a water landing are: 1.) Breaking up 2.) Flipping 3.) Sinking before evac can begin. The positives are lesser risk of a smoking hole. Given the dude basically had the choice of flying into buildings with a road landing, flying towards active runways, and a water landing and had to decide all while trading airspeed for altitude, sure seems like he did the right thing. And then to think that with the water landing he both kept the nose up without flipping the a/c or braking off the tail is pretty amazing. The guy is a real hero. They don't practice this stuff in the simulator. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:285166 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
