Richard was quite capable, and after the initial panic, he finally managed to stabilize the plane. As the altitude decreased, the wind volume became smaller and more stable, and the difficulty of control became less and less.
The difficulty of landing under extremely strong headwinds is that there cannot be a large angle for a long time, because the headwind is too large, and as long as there is a significant angle, the airflow will impact the fuselage, causing the angle to become larger. However, this angle will not be too large for a long time, and when the angle reaches a critical value, the yaw stability of the aircraft will come into play.
The headwind will hit the deflected vertical tail, forcing the aircraft back to a path parallel to the airflow.
However, due to the high approach speed, Richard had very little time to make corrections, and the runway was covered with heavy snow, so the braking effect was extremely poor. It would have been better to straighten the plane in the air rather than wait until after landing to correct the intersection.
All I can say is that the president of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Association is really capable. After adapting for a while, he seemed to have found the trick and kept the plane stable at an altitude of about 200 feet.
At this altitude, the entire Manor Airport can be clearly seen. However, due to the heavy snowfall, except for the approach light column that can guide the runway centerline, the rest of the place, including where the runway is, where the taxiway is, and where the road surface is, is completely unknown. It is all white, with no reference points at all.
"Ground speed 60 knots, indicated airspeed 210 knots, altitude 200 feet!" Richard became more and more proficient at it, and even reported some important flight data to Xu Cang on the eve of landing.
Suddenly, a green light lit up on the top of the control tower near the airport. Richard immediately understood: "The tower has given the light signal. We can land now."
"After landing, shut down both engines, push the lever to the maximum position, use the maximum automatic brake, and do not use manual brakes." Xu Cang reminded.
At this time, Xu Cang felt that his vision seemed to have recovered a little, at least the black area around him had obviously faded a lot, which was the result of blood supplying to the brain and the optic nerves starting to work again. However, it would take some time for him to fully recover his vision, and it would definitely be after he landed.
"Don't want to push back?" Richard didn't look at me, but he still couldn't help asking in confusion.
"No need! You're maneuvering very well. The plane is flying very low. Even if you use reverse thrust, the effect will be mediocre. Moreover, if you use reverse thrust, the snow on the road will cause more damage to the engine. Just shut down the engine. A ground speed of more than 60 knots and a 1,600-meter runway are enough."
The muscles on Richard's face twitched a few times. He didn't expect that at this time, Xu Cang was still concerned about the two engines.
Indeed, when reverse thrust is turned on, the air grille of the engine intake duct opens, causing the airflow direction to reverse. If a large amount of snow water is sucked in during this period, whether it is the snow water itself or other substances mixed in it, there is a relatively high possibility that it will contaminate the entire engine.
The effect of reverse thrust is only at high speeds, but the effect of reverse thrust is actually very general at low speeds.
Rather than risking the destruction of two engines by seeking a reverse thrust with limited effect, it is better to shut down the engine directly and protect it well, which is more cost-effective.
Being able to say this, it can be seen that Xu Cang is quite confident about the landing.
Richard did not dwell too much on this matter. At such a low ground speed, the reverse thrust effect was indeed very poor. What Xu Cang said made sense. After all, the two PW6000 engines were worth tens of millions of dollars, so it would be better to keep them.
"If something unexpected happens, I will try to deflect..."
Before landing, Richard gave Xu Cang one last reminder. His original intention was that if an accident occurred and the plane could not stop on the runway, he would try to deflect the plane. At that time, he would not be able to care whether the plane rushed to the taxiway or the apron.
You know, the end of the runway is an extremely steep downhill slope. If you rush down, there will be no possibility of survival.
But before Richard could finish his words, he suddenly felt the nose of the plane falling.
The nose of the plane dived down in a very strange way, because in an ultra-low-altitude environment, the headwind that the plane was exposed to was already relatively stable, and there was no push bar, so how could the nose of the plane fall down?
Moreover, the nose-down movement did not seem to be caused by airflow or control, as if the plane suddenly ran out of strength.
If an ordinary pilot encounters this situation and the nose of the plane drops, he can just pull the stick. This is a normal operation.
But Richard was different. His vision and skills surpassed 99% of the world's pilots and he was one of the best. He immediately noticed that there was something unusual about the nose-down situation. This situation had no signs and did not seem to be affected by airflow and control, so it was more likely to be another situation.
"Stalled?"
Richard thought of this factor first, but the aircraft's stick shaker warning did not sound.
However, there is one situation where the stick shaker warning does not sound but the aircraft may still stall, and that is severe icing.
If there is heavy ice on the wings of an aircraft, it will change the surface structure of the wing to some extent, thereby directly affecting the flow of air over the wing surface.
The aerodynamic layout of an aircraft is an extremely sophisticated technical project. How the air should flow, at what speed, and what effects it will produce are all determined through various tests before commercial use. Once heavy ice forms on the wings, it will undoubtedly break the original aerodynamic layout, thus affecting the generation of lift.
It is for this reason that airplanes are very sensitive to icing.
The aircraft's angle of attack detector can detect the aircraft's angle of attack data. However, the reason for stalling due to an excessively large angle of attack is that the airflow flowing through the wing surface will separate when the critical angle of attack is exceeded. Therefore, once the angle of attack detector detects that the aircraft's angle of attack is too large, it will issue a stick shaker warning.
However, if it is icing, the aircraft's angle of attack itself does not increase, but the stall is caused by the ice accumulation directly changing the aerodynamic layout of the wing. In this case, the angle of attack detector cannot detect it, and naturally there is no stick shaker warning.
Moreover, when they were on the ground, Richard and Xu Cang were extremely worried about the problem of ice accumulation on the aircraft. The wind and snow here were too fierce, and the temperature was too low, so the anti-icing fluid might not be effective. Not long ago, when the aircraft was just a little close to the cyclone, several flight data probes were blocked by ice. Although they were later melted and unblocked due to the frictional heat generated by the dive of the aircraft, it also showed how serious the ice accumulation inside the cyclone was.
From this point of view, it is very likely that the wings of the aircraft were iced, resulting in an effect similar to a stall.
"The wings are frozen and the plane is stalled!" Richard felt more and more scared. If he had held the stick like an ordinary pilot, the stall would undoubtedly have been deepened, and he would not have been able to correct it.
Without thinking, Richard pushed the stick up, and the speed of the plane began to increase instantly. Usually in such a situation, you need to add some throttle, but Richard was afraid that adding throttle would increase the speed of the plane too much, so he did not move the throttle.
Considering that the nose-down trend just now was not too obvious, Richard felt that even if it was a stall, it should only be shallow, and it should be able to be corrected by slightly pushing down the stick.
Now the altitude is only 200 feet. The altitude margin is definitely not enough, but it is barely enough for him to recover and land.
Xu Cang heard what Richard said before he pushed the rod. He could vaguely see the situation outside at this time, but he did not take over the control because he did not feel that there was anything wrong with what Richard did at that time.
At an altitude of 200 feet, pilots of his and Richard's level could easily perform a recovery and landing, especially since the stall did not seem to be too serious.
However, as Richard pushed the top stick deeper, he suddenly felt something was wrong. Generally speaking, due to the wing stall, the lift of the aircraft decreased and the nose pitched down, which was a normal logical chain. However, as the top stick action was generated, the stall should be suppressed and the control surface effect should be restored. But in fact, why did he feel that the plane was falling faster and faster, and it was still in a soft state?
If Richard had pushed the pole, the plane would have fallen faster and faster.
The thrust of the aircraft is sufficient, and Richard maintained a relatively stable attitude after pushing the stick. In this case, the aircraft's falling speed will increase, but it should only appear when Richard pushes the stick. Once the aircraft's attitude is stable, the aircraft's falling speed should also be stable.
However, the fact is that even though Richard maintained a relatively constant posture, the plane's falling speed was still accelerating, which is actually quite strange.
In fact, a better explanation for this situation is that Richard's operation of pushing the rod did not actually eliminate the effect of the stall.
The plane was still in a stall.
"Not enough changes?"
Richard thought of this possibility first, but he had already pushed the stick. If he still couldn't correct it, wouldn't the plane be in a deep stall?
But judging from my physical sensation and the previous visual trend of the nose drooping, the plane should not be in a deep stall state, right?
If the plane was in a deep stall at that time, they could basically close their eyes and wait for death.
However, even though he didn't quite understand it , Richard couldn't help but believe it. The plane was now in a state that looked like it was falling down due to the loss of lift in a stall state.
So Richard started to increase the amount of push-stick, hoping to first correct the plane from the stall and then perform a level landing.
However, in this case, the already limited headroom suddenly became tight.
The plane was already flying fast, so the standard rate of descent was also high. Richard pushed the stick again, and the plane's descent rate briefly exceeded 1,800 feet, and it was almost touching the ground.
However, Richard was in a difficult position at this time, and even fell into the pipeline effect. He was thinking about the stall and thought he could level the plane at the last moment, but in fact, the plane was already in a precarious condition.
In fact, Xu Cang also had some of these signs.
They both felt that they should recover from the stall first and then touch down.
However, Xu Cang suddenly remembered the stick shake warning he encountered during the previous dive. That time, Xu Cang also pushed the stick up to correct, but the stick shake warning did not disappear in the end. The speed at that time was much greater than it is now.
Although there was no stick shaker warning this time, judging from the plane's sinking and nose drooping, the plane was undoubtedly in a stall, and the stall condition was getting worse, at least it was not recovered .
Two situations, same approach, almost the same results.
The method of stall recovery is absolutely correct, otherwise, stall stick pusher would not be something engraved in the pilot's genetic instinct. So, what is wrong with the stall stick pusher that cannot be used to recover?
There is no problem with the correction method, but the problem is the stall itself!
Suddenly, Xu Cang thought of an extremely rare possibility.
“Damn it!”
Xu Cang didn't care whether he could see clearly or not at this moment, and shouted: "Let go!"
After saying that, Xu Cang directly pulled the pole back a lot.
Richard's reaction was conditioned. When Xu Cang gave the order, he instinctively released the side stick with his right hand. But when he noticed that Xu Cang actually started to pull the stick, his face changed immediately: "Xu Cang, if you do this, the plane will lose lift and crash into the runway."
As we all know, pulling the stick during a stall is a reverse operation and will only deepen the degree of the stall.
Once the stall is too severe and the lift is lost, if a plane weighing dozens of tons falls down, wouldn't it disintegrate directly?
However, what Richard did not expect was that Xu Cang suddenly pulled the throttle, but not all the way. Instead, as soon as he pulled the stick, the plane actually naturally and madly reduced its sinking, as if it was an extremely normal operation.
With the stick in hand, the aircraft will lift its head and sink less.
Yes, it is that simple and that direct.
"This..." Richard was dumbfounded. If it was as he expected, the plane should have lost all lift at this moment, and then crashed heavily on the runway and was smashed to pieces.
However, the fact is that the plane did not enter a deep stall, and even quickly recovered from the stall state. Not only did it recover, but Xu Cang's action with the stick was extremely rough, greatly reducing the sinking and the original increased speed on the eve of landing.
"No, no, how could this happen?" Richard suddenly felt deeply doubtful about his own skills: "Did the plane not stall?"
However, if the plane did not stall, then what did the nose droop before and the increasingly rapid sinking rate mean? Isn't this a typical stall performance?
But if the plane was stalled, why did it stop sinking as soon as Xu Cang pulled the stick? It was exactly the same as if it had not stalled.
However, before Richard could figure it out, the plane was already at a very low altitude, and even though Xu Cang pushed the stick hard, it didn't completely stop the plane from sinking. It only took three or four seconds for the plane to crash heavily onto the runway.
As the plane touched down, Xu Cang shouted, "Richard, hand over the controls!"