landing bounce
 

So I was flying SK today OSL-ARN 737-800. There was quite a bit of turbulence going under 1,000 feet.

The back wheels touched down but the plane bounced back a couple of feet only to touch down hard a couple of (felt) seconds later.

Is that normal wear&tear? Any damage that can come from it? Never had that before so strongly.

before the planes were flown by people instead of computers, pounding one in was not unusual. remember an LH dc10 that was pounded so hard all the tv sets in the aisles and all the overhead storage doors popped open. lots of passenger applause.

i sort of think the gear can take it, but it really eats tires.

I don't think that is an accurate description of the current state of aviation. Only when the visibility is below a certain minimum is the autopilot used to do an auto-landing, and that's only in Europe. Most landings are still hand flown.

My understanding after reading a few threads in the past over @ Airliners is that even in most modern commercial airliners can and will experience a bit of bounciness under the right (or wrong?) conditions. The pilots over there state it's really just matter of Geometry and vertical speed.

They did mention that some planes are much easier to land consistently than others.

I've felt a few of those myself, usually only on particularly windy days.

I've certainly been on a few flights where there has been an almighty bump on landing, I can understand it freaking people out.

Personally, i dont find that as distressing as coming into land then suddenly aborting and climbing rapidly again. This has only happened to me twice (weirdly enough within a few weeks of each other). To coin a good Scottish phrase.....'it gives me the heeby-jeebys' :)

I'm comfortable with a bit of a bump at landing. It's when the bounce is off just one wheel, the plane is tipping slightly to one side and you feel like the wing is about to hit the ground I get nervous.

Serious damage is unlikely, the landing gear on commercial airliners can handle some pretty solid downward G-forces. If it was a hard landing it was probably just grounds for an inspection.

I think you would be surprised at the types of forces commercial airliners are built to withstand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai2HmvAXcU0

This is not uncommon when there's a strong gusty crosswind. It's normal to land on one wheel when there's a crosswind, so that the aircraft is banked slightly into the wind. The idea is that the lift generated by the wings pull the aircraft to one side at the same speed that the crosswind is blowing the aircraft the opposite direction. The result, when done correctly, is that the aircraft is both pointing directly down the runway and travelling directly down the runway at the moment of touchdown. This is perfectly normal, and pilots are trained to do this. However, if there's an unexpected gust of wind just as one wheel touches down, or the pilot is clumsy, you can get the one-wheel bounce you describe.

Happens to me all the time...and on all aircraft too. There were some memborable ones..back in 83 on A DC 10 we came in so hard a tire blew. In 99 I was on an LH 747 that landed so hard the 02 masks fell out and a few bins opened...and we bounced. I would estimate that hard landings and bounces happen 1 of 3 flights for me, and I fly 2 times a week.

I've had this in windy, steep LCY landings quite a few times, usually in 146 derivatives. The tyre merchants of East London must love the place.

I would be more concerned about stopping before the end of the runway (all that applause starts waaaay before the plane exits the runway, doesn't it?) than a hard landing.

Yeah, I know it's far from being seriously dangerous - still freaks me out though...

Unless the weather is extremely bad (low visibility, etc) in which case a CAT III autoland is performed (providing the runway has the instrumentation for it), the last 1-3 mins of the approach are usually done by hand after the plane's navigation has guided it to the runway. It is very much normal and not damaging for the plane to "bounce", however depending on the landing an additional inspection may be required which examines the landing gear assembly/wheels/brakes. The main gear (middle of the plane) can take a lot of force however the nosegear is much more "fragile". That is why a plane cannot land at 0 degrees of pitch. Instead the plane "flares" so that the main gear touch down first and then the nose is slowly lowered.