How to Land an Airplane

 
 
 

Vocabulary

wheel	explore	unexpected
label	life saver	configuration
gaze	attitude	reference
stable	mission	advanced
verify	design	emergency
invite	provide	incident
expect	aircraft	legendary
float	staff (2)	simulator
airline	airliner	correspondent
trust	ensure	operate (2)
legacy	identical	emergency
bonds	failure	hydraulic pump
strike	throttle	any other
go up	runway	advanced
crew	slope (2)	demonstration
thick	rubber	take out (3)
ditch	cockpit	touch down
flap	ensure	malfunction
gear	in order	indicator
brake	purposes	landing gear
weight	attitude	degree (3)
screen	heading	in order to
knot	lifetime	decelerate
set up	ground	come down
yoke	setting	accelerate
aim	exciting	manual (2)
prior	descent	at this point
flare	altitude	autopilot
clear	land (3)	bring/brought/brought
gentle	possible	threshold
cross	just like	make sure
slip	reverse	nickname
idle	aviator	approach

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 
Transcript

The Aviators was made possible by…

“When the unexpected happens, the Life Saver provides one hour of emergency attitude reference, giving you the time you need to land safely. In a mission’s darkest moment, trust Midcontinet Instruments.”

Now for the first time on TV, the stories and reports of people who fly, and the aircraft they fly.

And you are invited in an exciting, house bumping new television series, designed for everyone who has ever gazed skywards, and dreamed of slipping the bonds of Earth. The Aviators.

This week on the Aviators, we take a look at the Russian Mig-15, we explore the legacy of the Cessna brand. We take a look at float training on Canada’s west coast. We talk to legendary pilot, Patty Wagstaff. And we go inside a simulator to learn how to land an airliner.

From Bombury Bay Airport, this is the Aviators.

I’m Jeff Lewis and I’m a staff correspondent with the Aviators.

When I’m not on the Aviators, I’m a professional airline captain. Here we are in the Umbrea 190 Simulator, one of the most advanced airliners in the world today.

This simulator operates exactly like the aircraft. The software this simulator runs on is identical to the software run on the aircraft.

In the airline world, we may fly our entire careers without ever having an emergency or incident. However we train every eight months in these simulators for that one day that we’ll never forget.

From hydraulic pump failures, to engine fires, to a bird strike that takes out both engines and we have to ditch in the Hudson just like Sully did, we train for these once in a lifetime incidents or emergencies.

We’re in the simulator here. We’re at about ten miles out final from the runway.

I’m going to show you how to land an airliner.

In the airline world, we usually have two pilots as a crew.

However today for demonstration purposes, I’m going to show you the basics on how to land an airline.

So right now, we’re about ten miles final from the runway, the autopilot, nicknamed “George” is flying. But we’re going to disconnect the autopilot, and disconnect the auto-throttles.

An airliner is just like any other airplane. Flying is the same as a Cessna 150, or any light twin: we have our yoke here; our thrust levels here, which control engine power. Our landing gear and our flaps. And that’s all we need to ensure a safe landing.

Coming out at about eight miles final, I’m going to start a speed reduction. In order to land the aircraft safely on the runway, we have to ensure that the aircraft is at its landing speed when we touch down.

While we’re on the approach, I’ll show you some basics on the umbrea. This is one of the most advanced glass cockpits aircraft flying today. We have our primary flight display, our multifunction display, and our map and systems display here.

On our primary flight display, we have our air speed on the left, our ADI or Attitude Directional Indicator in the middle, and our altitude is on the right.

There’s lots of other information displayed on these screens, but however, in order to land the aircraft, we just need the basics: speed, heading, attitude, and altitude will get us to the ground safely.

As we’re decelerating there through 190 knots, flap one has been selected. I’m going to now select flap two, and we’re coming about six miles final.

Flap two will further enable us to continue our deceleration to a safe landing speed as we come up here to about five miles, we select the landing gear down.

The landing gear on the airliner takes a long time to come down, as much as about 15 seconds in this aircraft.

Now that the wheels are down, we’re going to select the next flap setting, and bring our dialer speed back to the approach speed for the aircraft weight and the aircraft configuration.

The aircraft is not decreasing at 160 knots, we’re on short final, I’ll select the landing flap, verify that our landing gear’s down, ensure that the flight director’s off, and now all I have to do now is land the aircraft.

It’s all now manually flown, the speed is 140 knots, that is set for our aircraft weight and programmed into the system, prior to the descent. At this point, we should make sure the landing gear’s down and the aircraft is configured.

That will ensure that the aircraft is on a stabilized approach. As we come up on our approach speed, our landing flap of five is selected, and again, I verify that the landing gear is down.

So we come up at the mile final. I make sure that the speed is the approach speed and we’re on a three degree slope. I’m doing this visually today, but this is the picture that we should be looking at on the short final.

We’ve been cleared to land, the aircraft is on speed, and is a stable approach configuration.

We’re aiming for a touchdown speed, 1,500 feet down the runway. And you can see it on any runway by where all the rubber marks are.

The thousand foot marker is labeled by the thick white line. We cross the runway threshold, also known as the “piano keys”. We’re at fifty feet, and I start to flare.

The thrust levels are brought to flight idle, and we just put the aircraft gently down on the runway.

We’ve touchdown, I select full reverse trust and maximum wheel brakes. That insures a safe stop on the available runway. As we come to 70 knots, I select the thrust levels out of reverse, into idle, we can now come to a stop, and the parking brake is set.

That is how you land and airline.

 

 

Questions

1. What is the “Aviators”? Who watches the Aviators?

2. Jeff Lewis a full-time journalist and TV host. Is this correct or wrong?

3. Is the flight simulator exactly like (identical) to a real cockpit?

4. Do experienced pilots still have to train on flight simulator? If yes, what do they train for?

5. Jeff shows viewer how to take off, cruise, and land an airliner. True or false? What is the first thing that Jeff does in the cockpit?

7. The basic configuration and set up of all airplanes, whether Cessna or jumbo jet, is essentially the same. Is this correct or incorrect?

8. What are the main features of controlling an airplane?

9. You have to ensure and verify that…..

10. What is the approach speed? The proper slope is ……. degrees.

11. What happens at the end?
 
 
 
 
A. I am a pilot. I have flown on an airplane. Yes or no?

B. Would you like to be a pilot? Did you dream of becoming a pilot as a child?

C. What might happen in the future?