Needs more work.
Also, it looks like “Funchal” might not be an entirely appropriate name for the airport.
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35 comments to Crab Technique |
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Reminds me vaguely of old Moffett NAS
next to SF Bay–except no mountain on other side–or the old Hong Kong runway.
(only landed at either once–both times as pax back in sixties)
makes one glad that the old runways could turn into the wind – most times.
My old crew in VP-10 (CAC-7)spent a wonderful week there in the Madeiras Islands during a NATO exercise. 1980, IIRC. Flew 2-3 missions in support of fleet ops, and spent the rest of the time playing football on the beach and checking out the gorgeous Euro-women on vacation.
I was always amazed that they paid us to do this stuff..
Holy cow, that’s a nasty crosswind! And that runway extension looks like quite the feat of engineering!
Awe, looks to me like that could be fixed with something like a runaway “plane” ramp. It might cut back on airport use on the nicer flying days.
As long as they have money for building runways in the sky above the bay, maybe they should build some power-using, reverse-type-windmills to blow a complementary wind vector across the centerline to balance the nasty cross winds. Power swivel and airport control? or some sort of ‘wind anchor’ to let the breeze auto-aim it? Hmmm….. Constant speed or constant pitch? Hmmm….. Probably should be on powered stilts to go up or down based on the winds aloft, too. … maybe a “rapid retract” button for the tower folks to drop the windmill towers in a hurry for a missed approach…. ahaahemmm. maybe not.
Potosi Joel/
You’re on to something, my friend. Just hook the whole deal up to some batteries to store the free juice generated when it wind-mills in neutral during no traffic periods, and all the greenies will go crazy and kiss your rosie red derrier. We need to get our other resident engineer Max Damage in on this for additional advise. Before it’s all over we’ll have something Rube Goldberg would be right proud of.
Or Not.
Heck why not have the whole runway be mounted on huge ball bearings and auto swivel to align with the wind and/or the hapless aviator attempting to reconnect with terra firma.
Vx – pass the bottle will ya before its all gone….
Speaking of rotating on huge ball bearings, did anyone else read about this discovery?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1216986/Roman-Emperor-Neros-legendary-rotating-dining-room-uncovered-archaeologists.html
Emperor Nero had a 50-6- foot wide circular dinning room that rested on a series of round bearings that were propelled by a water source. This allowed the room to rotate with the earth’s rotation. The remains have apparently been discovered, including the 13-foot wide circular pillar upon which the room’s foundation rested.
See the link for more details.
Think of the wind shear down near the runway. That would really make things interesting.
I’ve actually been pondering something along those lines, thinking these natural formations cause a venturi effect whereby we get incredible wind speeds and that, by gosh, makes tapping it profitable. It also is in a narrow enough formation harnessing that wind energy should have a very measurable effect on wind velocity by the time one nears the airport — it’s not like you’re trying to harness winds across a 200-mile swath of the high plains.
The idea I’ve come up with (try not to laugh) is shrouded turbine blades set in multiple arrays. Yes, I know, they’re windmills, but rather than 60 feet tall make them 30 with multiple blades like what you would find in a non-condensing steam turbine (aka a backpressure turbine). Shroud them with a glorified velocity stack to force the most wind into them, the one on the rear regulates the backpressure, and place them in a grid where they can rotate such that there is little overlap for, say, three or five rows of the things. Where altitude allows one could also mount them two-high on a tower, with an inverted wing on the back of the tower acting as a diverter to funnel remaining air lower to the next unit back at higher velocity. Think of it as a bunch of 5×5 grids of 747 motors.
They’ll be more expensive initially than a standard three-blade windmill, and generate less output per unit, but they’ll handle higher wind speeds more easily and with the variable venturi’s would be the most efficient method of gathering power. Finally, they’ll be spinning like mad, so we can use reduction gears to our generators. Multiplication gears (overdrive, I spin you faster than I’m turning) are a real point of failure in current turbine farms. By using something more akin to an automotive alternator minus the rectifiers, and by using direct drive or even reduction gearing, reliability increases dramatically.
It also looks like a solid object to the naked eye or on sonar, thus keeping the bird-watchers and bat-lovers happy.
Anybody got the number of that T. Boone Pickens guy? I think I’ve an idea I’d like to bounce off him.
– Max
Was the runway extension project funded by earmarks from Rep. John Murtha?
At least the guy had the courage to go around. I’d hate to think his pride would make him plant it when he knew better.
He was a lot closer the 1st time than the 2nd go-round, that’s for sure. Hate to think what 3rd attempt looked like–or diameter of a certain orifice.
Overheard on the TAP private line near Funchal.
“Okay, Junior, that’s twice, we’re getting low on fuel,……. you try it this time.”
During my brief time in Yuma (early part of ‘75) my instructor (Private) would take me to Aux 4 for crosswind work, but that was in a Grumman American; cool little ride. The training was both fun and helpful, and always helped me appreciate what some of the bigger kids had/have to do.
I once saw a C-141 crew on approach to Kaneohe make a crosswind approach, first using wing down and then transitioning to a crab. Watching the pilot swing that nose right to left while rolling wings level was a thing of beauty, and showed a supreme level of confidence at the controls. On the other hand I’ve seen F-4 crews put it down crabbed, putting considerable side loads on the main struts. Ouch!
Momgo/
My college roommate took his pilot tng at Reese in Lubbock, Tx. Said winds there were such that practically every damned landing he ever made was severe cross-wind. Stood him in good stead as he ended up in Bongos out of Shreveport. (But he was in hog heaven–his hometown was Dallas and he wanted Buffs as his father had been a Capt. for Delta and all he wanted to do was get out and follow in Dads footsteps)
Been to Reese once. Our Skipper had a jet go down in chocks, so we were scampered there via C-12 from Pt. Mugu. Tweetville it was…a whole mess of them. Off topic: Courtesy has a T-37 for sale. Pretty little thing just simpering for a new owner.
I remember seeing BUFF crews that were, oh, so much younger than their steeds. Too funny. Sat in a BUFF cockpit once in high school, and remember how comfortable I felt in the left seat.
As an aside, after the video played I went looking for other footage of that airport. What insipid little 35 year-old wanker living in his mother’s basement thinks I want to watch video of their MS Flight Simulator approach? The same goes for those dweebs who post clips of their RailRoad Tycoon games when I’m trying to find footage of a 4-8-8-4 Big Boy locomotive.
Sheesh! I mean, I play video games too, but you don’t see me posting vids of a Day of Defeat game under the heading D-Day Invasion or The Taking of Antwerp, and I sure don’t figure my prowess at killing zombies in Left 4 Dead is in any way of interest to anybody else on the planet.
Give ya a hint, kid. If you’ve got time to mouse around and adjust things for best viewing angle, you’re not busy enough to be flying a plane. And no matter how many perfect landings you make, how many zombies you kill, how many times you establish that beach-head and hear the victory music, there are approximately three *billion* Chinese who couldn’t care less. Plus all the real pilots and soldiers.
Plus me.
– Max
here ya go, Max… Big Boy footage towards the end. There is some video floating around of a run the last working Big Boy made out of SLC, I believe. i saw it last summer but can’t remember where.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAjsTA8ptwE
Respects,
Pure bliss, Tim. Thank you. I had the great pleasure of crawling around a 4-8-8-4 prior to its being moved from Carter Lake, IA to Omaha, NE as part of the Union Pacific museum. Those were real engineering marvels for their day, and I’d like to keep the knowledge of them alive.
Ponder it. Replace that firebox with a GE fast breeder reactor, you’d have a 90mph train with zero emissions and capable of withstanding any attack, plus the boiler acts as shielding for the reactor.
But then, I had that dream 30 years ago during the Arab Oil Embargo. I guess it takes a real crisis to prompt the making of a better mousetrap.
– Max
Max/
Speaking of small reactors. I had the same sort of vision for the new VA/Univ. Hospital complex planned for downtown New Orleans. The two Hosp are being built side-by-side sharing the HVAC systems. And the concern is for reliable power in case of another flood, no? So why not–since part of it is Govt (VA) run–put a small Navy sub reactor or two there. Safe as hell and un-interrupted power during emergencies (and full load/service power at that.) Let the Navy run the damn thing–would be great shore duty. Three year tour in New Orleans? Retention factor would skyrocket. Where am wrong?
Max/
Speaking of small reactors. I had the same sort of vision for the new VA/Univ. Hospital complex planned for downtown New Orleans. The two Hosp are being built side-by-side sharing the HVAC systems. And the concern is for reliable power in case of another flood, no? So why not–since part of it is Govt (VA) run–put a small Navy sub reactor or two there. Safe as hell and un-interrupted power during emergencies (and full load/service power at that.) Let the Navy run the damn thing–would be great shore duty. Three year tour in New Orleans? Retention factor would skyrocket. Where am wrong?
PS: Max, I think my idea is good, but didn’t mean to claim it was DOUBLE good.
There’s plenty of ex-Navy Nuc’s you could find to operate it if Navy doesn’t want the responsibility, and depending upon how much having DoE sniffing around adds to the costs I think it’s a winner and should be the start of our energy independence program. Heck, it’s not like hospitals aren’t full of rad-waste already, what’s a few more kilo’s?
The only real question is building the hardened facility and cooling. I’d go with conventional cooling towers rather than the huge Three-Mile-Island sort of units, and perhaps an air-to-air heat exchanger for backup. The nice thing about a naval reactor design is they’ve their own containment and shielding in a very compact space, making it easy to add additional containment without a lot of real estate.
Your idea is also perfect for data centers, which presently account for just under 2% of the power consumption in the USA and are growing at a rate of about 16% per year. Hospitals and data centers are already semi-hardened facilities, allowing them to become independent of the grid would be a positive boon to energy self-sufficiency.
I’m with ya! Who do we call?
– Max
If you went to a multi-oxide cycle, there is almost no waste at all. What the French have produced wouldn’t fill a small living room.
Carter wanted to go to a MOX cycle, but the ecomaniacs wouldn’t stand for it.
Back in the 70s I wouldn’t have wanted to see a bunch reactors built because training for civilian operators was substandard. These days we can build simulators to train with and ring out an operator in those rare failure modes they never see. Computers weren’t fast or cheap enough to replicate reactors in a computer very well. No excuse these days. I say build a bunch of ‘em and let the Ayrabs drink their oil. We’ll have to shoot the ecomanics first, but I’m sure we could get a few volunteers for that sad duty.
How about one of these, 200 KW Toshiba Micro Nuclear reactor.
I think that they are able to go up in size too.
If not, daisy chain them if you need more power.
So, aren’t these dudes allowed to put a wing down into the wind? Either that or hold that crab on until a lot lower down!
Some of the widebodies have digital flight control systems that get puzzled by the whole “wing down/top rudder” technique (it wasn’t recommended in the Hornet, either). And I think their wings are so wide, that you risk scraping a wingtip using that method as well.
The B-52 was designed to change the angle of the landing gear so you could crab all the way to the ground without stressing the gear. Given the wingspans these days, and the fact that wing down-top rudder is one of the ways to handle crosswind landings, why not design the gear to crab for you.
There are few clips on you tube that show the results of what Lex is talking about. One ripped off an engine. I think that one happened at Hong Kong.
I wish people would stop pairing footage up with RAWK music like they do…
Nice thing about it, when he decided he was in it too deep, the sink rate appeared to stop almost instantly. Lots of excess power. ‘Course, that’s just from lookin’ at the video.
Jeez, and the LSOs bitched when the wind was not straight down the angle. Just kidding Lex/Nose.
I don’t know which is worse…”Crab” or shooting approaches at night with “pitching deck”. I think he was definately “squeezing” his cheeks on those approaches…LOL. A quick note of interest to all from the Navair community, stop by and have a look at our new website. It’s not loaded up YET, but it’s a “Humble” beginning… http://www.usnaocs.org
“Wheels Up”
Bumpy