Ask The Pilot

[AviatorInsight]

This one might be a question for @AviatorInsight.

I was flying yesterday on a Saab 340. When we touched down in SYD on runway 34L (i.e. a very long runway for this small plane), the main landing gear touched down firmly onto the runway but after that there was no real braking and the front landing gear didn't touch down for probably about 15-20 seconds. Once the main landing gear touched down, there was no spoilers or reverse thrust used either (and these never deployed at all). We kind of just slowly rolled out using (I assume) nothing but light manual braking which started to be applied once the front landing gear was finally planted on the ground.

Once we were parked at the gate and the coughpit door opened, I overheard the flight attendant say to the pilots "cheeky landing, captain" and the reply was something along the lines of "aerodynamic braking".

Would I be correct in assuming that the pilot intentionally prolonged the flare after touching down to slow the plane down without using brakes? Is this a common procedure? Given the length of the runway I'm sure it's not a problem, but haven't experienced this before. When I noticed we weren't really slowing down much on the runway, I thought for a moment we were going to go around as it was also quite windy. But that wasn't the case.

Definitely sounds like the crew got a "roll through". Did you remember what exit you took? A common one, off 34L is to vacate at taxiway Golf, after crossing runway 07/25. So if that's what happened, then for an aircraft that can stop on a dime, you can literally "roll through" without using autobrakes or reverse.

The Saab doesn't have spoilers anyway, but reverse may not always be needed, and just gentle braking is all that is required.

This is a little different on a jet. If we get a roll through to Golf in the 737, then we can take the autobrakes off but we must engage reverse for every landing. In this case, only idle is sufficient which will just open the sleeves. Then it'll be manual braking to vacate.

When I used to fly the Saab, there was no "gatekeeper" to see where we touched down and at what speed, etc. These days I think that has changed and so crew must now touch down on the markers and essentially have to power up to take the exit on 34L.

 

[Mattg]

Definitely sounds like the crew got a "roll through". Did you remember what exit you took? A common one, off 34L is to vacate at taxiway Golf, after crossing runway 07/25. So if that's what happened, then for an aircraft that can stop on a dime, you can literally "roll through" without using autobrakes or reverse.

The Saab doesn't have spoilers anyway, but reverse may not always be needed, and just gentle braking is all that is required.

This is a little different on a jet. If we get a roll through to Golf in the 737, then we can take the autobrakes off but we must engage reverse for every landing. In this case, only idle is sufficient which will just open the sleeves. Then it'll be manual braking to vacate.

When I used to fly the Saab, there was no "gatekeeper" to see where we touched down and at what speed, etc. These days I think that has changed and so crew must now touch down on the markers and essentially have to power up to take the exit on 34L.

Thanks for that explanation! Yes, I believe we did vacate at taxiway Golf.

 

[justinbrett]

I was flying yesterday on a Saab 340. When we touched down in SYD on runway 34L (i.e. a very long runway for this small plane), the main landing gear touched down firmly onto the runway but after that there was no real braking and the front landing gear didn't touch down for probably about 15-20 seconds. Once the main landing gear touched down, there was no spoilers or reverse thrust used either (and these never deployed at all). We kind of just slowly rolled out using (I assume) nothing but light manual braking which started to be applied once the front landing gear was finally planted on the ground.

AKA the fighter jet landing.

Funny enough I had a A340 (Airbus, not SAAB) do that when I was controlling in Darwin - it was the RAAF charter from Al Minhad (Dubai). That was quite a sight! Apparently ex-military pilot as we found out later.