FS2004: Concorde landing video

[chris]

This is the video I was going to do a while back:

http://www.totalnfs.net/cpd/concorde_4L_landing.zip (8850kb)

(Unzip and view with Windows Media Player 9 series).

That is at the end of a 1hr 40min flight from Barbados to New York, landing runway 4 left at KJFK. 4L landings are safer for Concorde than 4R landings since 4L is a longer runway.

On this landing, I made an error in that I flared too early. Concorde has a radio altimeter with an adjustable function to warn you of the "decision height", for if you are going to land or go around. I sometimes use this to inform me of when to flare, but I didn't set it properly this time, with the results you saw. :o

Enjoy. :)

[KyzrSoze]

Cool video.

It reminds me of some trivia I heard recently. It referred to the Boeing 747 and the skill required to land it. Apparently the difficulty lies in the fact that at touchdown the cockpit is something like 120' off the ground. The proportions of the Concorde give the appearance of being similarly difficult.

Is it?

[chris]

Probably not in real life, because Concorde doesn't weigh much when landing (98 tonnes empty), and because they have an auto-land function. ;)

The pilots of the real Concordes reckoned their planes were excellent machines to fly.

Someone asked a pilot once did it feel like an old plane to fly. He responded by saying not at all, and that Concorde was a real thoroughbred machine.

You can listen to him yourself:
http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/olmedia/cta/events2000/tp_forums/hutchinson26jul.ram

Others have talked of Concorde being a quite responsive plane to fly.

In FS2004, this version isn't too hard to land provided you don't expect it to do impossible things, it isn't a fighter plane, so you shouldn't expect it to do 3G turns. You also have to remember not to flare too much on landing or you'll bounce against the tail-wheel, or possibly even damage the plane.

The actual real world procedure for landing is as follows:

http://www.totalnfs.net/cpd/vol5.gif

Some of the terms listed above are:

PA: auto-pilot, or pilote automatique
AT: auto-throttle or automanette
IAS: Indicated airspeed at sea-level.
IAS-Hold: Function to hold desired airspeed. Also works with IAS ACQ mode to hold the desired airspeed when it is reached.
GLIDE: Special mode to intercept glide-slope automatically and keep the plane on the glide-slope.
Vref: This is the final approach speed IIRC. Should be about 179kts.
Nez bas: Indicating to put the nose of the plane all the way down for final approach.
DV: Flight director mode, or Directeur de Vol