pothole
06-24-2008, 09:37 AM
From the Beach:
I was sitting on the beach in Nice, France a few days ago. The airport is about 3 or 4 km away, and the planes were taking off towards us, so we had a nice view of them climbing away. One plane was making more noise than most while taking off, so it caught my attention. As it approached me, I could see it was a large airplane, but got quite a surprise as it got closer to us and I saw it was Airbus' A380 (MSN 001).
Big airplane. My first time to see one in the air at relatively close range. While the A380 was approaching, passing and climbing away from us, I observed that the main landing gear had already retracted, but the nose gear was still out. The nose gear stayed out for as long as the airplane was in my sight, which would have been from 2 km to about 5 or 6 km after taking off from the airport. I didn't think this was normal. None of the other airplanes that passed us had either the main gear or the nose gear out at any time that I could see them (starting at about 2 km from the airport).
Anyhow, about 10 minutes later, we could see that the A380 landed again at Nice airport. It sat on the ground for about 20 or 30 minutes, and then took off again. This time when it passed us, both the nose gear and the main gear were retracted.
The local newspaper the next day reported that the A380 had made an unscheduled visit to Nice to check out the landing conditions. I don't know if they had planned to do two takeoffs and thus just didn't bother to retract the nose gear (would this be logical?), or if the plane had an unanticipated problem with retracting the nose gear and had to return to the airport to have something checked.
If the nose gear did get stuck and could not be retracted after takeoff, what would be the pilot's options? Are there limits on speed or altitude that he could fly with the gear out? Would this be a safety concern? Are there any alternatives except landing and getting the gear checked?
pothole
I was sitting on the beach in Nice, France a few days ago. The airport is about 3 or 4 km away, and the planes were taking off towards us, so we had a nice view of them climbing away. One plane was making more noise than most while taking off, so it caught my attention. As it approached me, I could see it was a large airplane, but got quite a surprise as it got closer to us and I saw it was Airbus' A380 (MSN 001).
Big airplane. My first time to see one in the air at relatively close range. While the A380 was approaching, passing and climbing away from us, I observed that the main landing gear had already retracted, but the nose gear was still out. The nose gear stayed out for as long as the airplane was in my sight, which would have been from 2 km to about 5 or 6 km after taking off from the airport. I didn't think this was normal. None of the other airplanes that passed us had either the main gear or the nose gear out at any time that I could see them (starting at about 2 km from the airport).
Anyhow, about 10 minutes later, we could see that the A380 landed again at Nice airport. It sat on the ground for about 20 or 30 minutes, and then took off again. This time when it passed us, both the nose gear and the main gear were retracted.
The local newspaper the next day reported that the A380 had made an unscheduled visit to Nice to check out the landing conditions. I don't know if they had planned to do two takeoffs and thus just didn't bother to retract the nose gear (would this be logical?), or if the plane had an unanticipated problem with retracting the nose gear and had to return to the airport to have something checked.
If the nose gear did get stuck and could not be retracted after takeoff, what would be the pilot's options? Are there limits on speed or altitude that he could fly with the gear out? Would this be a safety concern? Are there any alternatives except landing and getting the gear checked?
pothole