DC-7 Crosswind Landing at St. Maarten

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 01/31/2014 at 17:08 • Filed to: planelopnik

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A nice video of a true classic touching down at St. Maarten. What I find interesting is how this DC-7 has a similar, nose-down approach to its jet-powered offspring, the DC-8. There's a great example of this landing attitude on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Better to link, rather than embed.

Video: YouTube via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Chris Clarke > ttyymmnn 01/31/2014 at 17:16

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For those few moments when it passes the camera, those 4 radials sound fantastic.

Roberto G. > ttyymmnn 01/31/2014 at 17:25

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It seems to me that it was discharging fuel, so probably he was not that confident till the landing was completed.

doodon2whls > Roberto G. 01/31/2014 at 17:30

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I don't think he was discharging fuel... Those were most likely vapor trails caused by the vortices spilling off of the huge flaps in the very humid conditions (read: near dewpoint).

doodon2whls > ttyymmnn 01/31/2014 at 17:30

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No 'auto-land' option on that jalopy ! So much goodness right there in that video.

ttyymmnn > doodon2whls 01/31/2014 at 17:31

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Stick and rudder, baby. Stick and rudder.

Roberto G. > doodon2whls 01/31/2014 at 17:34

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I thought about that too, of course. But I thought as well that the landing speed was too low, to create any vapor trail and it was falling down, not curling up... therefore it must have been fuel.

doodon2whls > Roberto G. 01/31/2014 at 17:41

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I've seen vapor trails all the way to touchdown in extreme cases... I think the wind and POV of the videographer make it look like the vapor trails are 'falling'... I don't think they'd dump right up to the beach - any swimmers would be unhappy about that.

ttyymmnn > Roberto G. 01/31/2014 at 17:44

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That was my first thought, but I'm pretty certain it's a vapor trail. Speed is low, but humidity is probably very high.

Slave2anMG > ttyymmnn 01/31/2014 at 18:35

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Radials FTW. Glorious.