Three missed approaches

By flugsnug
Published on Apr 1, 2013

Three missed approaches at Birmingham Airport (BHX)

All in a days work for these pilots, as they chose to abort the landing procedure before touching down, and to "go around" and try again - which they all did without problem on second attempt.
The first two happened on days with quite strong crosswinds, the third on a rainy day with some gusts.

These are all scheduled passenger flights, and the planes are: KLM 737-700, Ryanair 737-800 and Monarch A321.

The missed approach ("aborted landing" if touchdown has occurred) doesn't happen very often but is a well-practised and safe process, including climbing back into airspace which is kept clear for just this possibility.

777 ice-breaker!

By flugsnug
Published on 31 Mar 2013

Reverse thrust from the Emirates Boeing 777 engines blasting chunks of ice from the edge of the runway at a snowy and icy Birmingham Airport (BHX) in late March 2013.

SAS MD-82 impressive 'zoom' climb

By flugsnug
Published on 27 Mar 2013

I'm convinced that SAS have secretly fitted afterburners to the Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines on their MD-82 aircraft. With all that smoke, noise and awesome 'vertical' climbs from the runway surely reheat is the only possible explanation?

This is flight SK2534 on its way to 60,000 feet from runway 33 at Birmingham Airport BHX.

Emirates 777: flights EK39 - EK40

By flugsnug

Published on 25 Mar 2013

 

Boeing 777 on Emirates flight EK39 from Dubai lands at Birmingham Airport on runway 15, March 22 2013, taking off back to Dubai later as EK40. The area of the new BHX runway extension is becoming pretty obvious now.

Whip crack sound from 737 wake turbulence

By flugsnug 

Published on 22 Mar 2013

          

Whip cracking sounds have sometimes been reported from the turbulent wake following landing planes. I've heard some very weird sounds from the wake, but this is the one and only time I've actually experienced the whip crack, which is at 0:45 in the video. The recording doesn't really do it justice - I nearly jumped out of my boots it was so loud and sudden!

If you look carefully before the whip crack you can see a visible effect of the wake as a horizontal line passing downwards through the horizon at 0:39 and visible for over 3 seconds. Also you can see the camera shake after the crack as the wash hits it (the movement at 0:51 is me panning slightly).

For geeksters the video finishes with a repeated recording of the whip crack and a display of the sound spectrum of the entire recording.

The plane is a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 landing runway 33 at Birmingham Airport (BHX). The conditions were: wind calm, temperature +5C, dew point +3C, barometric pressure (QNH) 990hPa