WestJet 737 making waves at TNCM

Talk about flying in real life
KL-666
Posts: 1610
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 8:42 am

WestJet 737 making waves at TNCM

Postby KL-666 » Sun Mar 12, 2017 2:59 pm

This week a WestJet got themselves pretty low before the runway at TNCM.

Image
Image from this article: http://christinenegroni.com/westjet-denies-close-call-caught-camera-st-maarten/

The airport has no ils and visibility was low at higher altitudes. So i suppose that when they saw something, they realized they were low early. Most standard procedures prescribe to be on a stable descent below 1000 ft, else make a go around. So the pilots did when they realized they were not where they thought they were.

Not much of an incident, just a normal go around, except for having been pretty low. On the water you can see a wake trail after the plane. I wonder what that is: down wash from the wing with flaps extended or jet blast form the engines spooling up for go around? In the video below, you can estimate their altitude as about one wing length. That is about 100 ft.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNhAYKM-7LQ

The most interesting approach video i ever saw of TNCM, among the otherwise boring videos of the most overrated airport in terms of having a challenging approach.

Kind regards, Vincent

User avatar
IAHM-COL
Posts: 6409
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2015 3:43 pm
Location: Homey, NV (KXTA) - U.S.A
Contact:

Re: WestJet 737 making waves at TNCM

Postby IAHM-COL » Sun Mar 12, 2017 4:57 pm

makes me think of

Image
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IAHM-COL/gpg-pubkey/master/pubkey.asc

R.M.S.
If we gave everybody in the World free software today, but we failed to teach them about the four freedoms, five years from now, would they still have it?

User avatar
jwocky
Site Admin
Posts: 1833
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2015 12:04 pm
Contact:

Re: WestJet 737 making waves at TNCM

Postby jwocky » Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:25 pm

I suspect, it's Mr. Newton riding the ground effect. So low, the plane gets more lift from the ground effect (effectively riding on an air cushion) and what you see on the water is the re-action to that force. If she would be faster, really fast, like Loreley-fast, she would probably also rip water up in her wake, Hollywood-FX style ;-). But for that, she would need about a 1000 knots more.
Free speech can never be achieved by dictatorial measures!

HJ1an
Posts: 474
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2015 1:09 am
Contact:

Re: WestJet 737 making waves at TNCM

Postby HJ1an » Mon Mar 13, 2017 6:35 am

A combination of both ground effect and jet exhaust, probably. Visibility doesn't seem that bad, but looks like they took their time to go around..

-- honestly that would be me in FGFS. that buoy would be a temporary aircraft carrier.

Octal450
Posts: 2192
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 2:47 am

Re: WestJet 737 making waves at TNCM

Postby Octal450 » Thu Mar 16, 2017 3:24 am

LOL


Return to “Real life flying”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests