The A380 has arrived at Oshkosh

July 30th, 2009 → 1:14 pm @ Geek Pilot

So far (knocking on wood), I have never landed this hard. The true forces involved can be seen in the wing flex after landing. Wow.

Jeremy

I realize it was a hard landing, the crab angle wasn’t removed with very much finesse, etc., so it looks pretty ugly. But isn’t this a pretty short runway for the A380 at only 8000 feet? Isn’t a “positive” landing normally desired for a short runway, so you don’t use up runway length in an overly long flare? It’d be interesting to see official “short-field” procedures for the 380…

I’d think the A380′s wings are built to take a lot of flex in thunderstorms, etc… I’m of course not qualified to say if it’s out of limits or not, but I don’t see what the huge concern is about. Can you explain?