Posted on 02/01/2017 5:00:46 AM PST by Springfield Reformer
OK, this is a call to all FReepers with any experience flying moderate to big planes. I'm writing a sci-fi romance thriller and I have a scene for which I need your expert input. The basic idea is I have someone trying to sneak into Italy on an Amazon Prime Air jet. The article at the link shows the picture. The one pictured is a Boeing 767 modified for freight.
So here's the problem. I have a special agent/scientist trying to do a rogue covert insertion, but his partner turns out to be working for the bad guy, unwillingly. So they are coming in hot when there's a struggle and the pilot is shot and the agent has to land the plane and he can't get outside help. All he's got is intelligence and a good knowledge of physics. He has to safely crash-land the plane on a too-short stretch of mountain highway. We can let him overshoot the road, destroy landing gear, break off wings, as long as the plane never experiences fatal levels of force until it comes to a full stop. I'm thinking he has to dump the fuel to not blow up like Windsor 114 in Die Hard 2(?). But if he does that too soon, he'll never be able to slow down enough to have a prayer at landing. But I'm no pilot, and my physics is mediocre at best. Any theories on how this might be done?
Ping for later
he needs to land into the wind at a speed just above stall with full flaps and gear down and then hit the reverse thrusters just as he touches the ground.
Depends on the model of 767: not all HAVE Fuel Jettison capability:
http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/faqs/fueldump.pdf
Good fiction needs to have a base in reality to be believable.
Your ersatz pilot would need more than intelligence to pull this off. He would need a basic understanding of aviation. Even then, a successful outcome would be unlikely.
Look up Gimli Glider.
Some knowledge of approach speeds and landing configurations would be necessary for any off airport landing, but it is doable.
and the pilot is shot
***************
co-pilot lands the plane at the nearest airport.
What the other freeper said ,, slow and dirty , gear , flaps , just above stall ,, crabbing .. whatever it takes... as for fire and dumping fuel I don’t know if the complexity of the craft would allow for someone unfamiliar to do anything beyond basic flight controls. It would likely be an unsurvivable crash as it would be at 140+ with obstructions..
If I had to pick a most survivable scenario it would be a wide flat beach area (low tide) ,, gear up .. and the gentlest descent possible,, what I know of Italian mountain terrain (from WW2 epics) doesn’t give me hope for a crash landing there.
While it is doable, unless he spent a lot of time on a decent simulator/simulator program that is set to a transport category airplane, he will either over-control the plane and cartwheel it, or stall it and impact out of control in a very unsurvivable crash.
Basic knowledge is not enough, it takes experience with a jet aircraft of that size.
Okay, first, you’ve got to be out of fuel, otherwise there is a fireball and no one survives, then, you have to be going really slow, or the entire airplane turns in to a billion razor blades, and no one survives, and finally, you need a really, really, really lucky hero.
Why does he have to land right away? First, if this at the end of the trip there is no need to dump fuel, the only time you dump fuel is if you have excessive weight for landing....
Take-off weight can exceed landing weight for many cargo jets....
Not all jets have fuel dump capability...if you need to lose fuel weight to land, declare an emergency and fly around for a couple of hours and burn off some fuel then land....
Find a lake, and stall it in. Since the flyer has no experience in the cockpit and won’t know about gear or flaps, water is a bigger cushion than land and he can make the mistake of pulling up the nose just before he contacts and belly it in. He can then shoot out the cockpit glass and crawl out before it sinks. Hope he can swim?
red
I had an uncle who was a genius physics guy. He routinely invented things from pure physics knowledge that ordinary folks would have to learn the old fashioned way. So while I realize experience would help, the character has, in theory, the brilliance to figure it out on the fly. Pun intended. :) So what I’m looking for is what would be the most plausible physical scenario.
Peace,
SR
Just do like Hollywood does and ignore physics. LOL
Windsor 114 in DH2 would never have blown up like that. They were very low on fuel. Sure, they may have had an initial explosion, as fumes/air/spark can cause one, but they would never have burned like that, there simply wouldn't have been any fuel to sustain the burn.
Correction. The pilot has no direct experience flying, but he’s very smart and has a near photographic memory and can call up all kinds of memories, movies, conversations with pilot buddies, etc. Shoot, even total nonpilot me knows about landing gears and flaps. As a passenger I’ve watched the flaps during landing all the time. What I would lack is any skill in using them. But then I’m not a brilliant physicist either. So for purposes of this exercise, assume the agent can figure it out. What would he need to do?
Peace,
SR
First time in the drivers seat? Two chances slim and none.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7WMQUDGDD4
A few lines of backstory would make whatever he does more plausible to the reader. If military he could have flown in a flight simulator on a base. I did when I was a marine (avionics, not as a pilot). I crashed landed on dozens of air craft carriers.
If no military history, have his father own a small plane and him playing flight simulators as a kid. There are million ways to add a touch of backstory that will help.
Last but not least, remember you are writing fiction, not a manual. Close counts in fiction and hand grenades.
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” - Ernest Hemingway
Landing on the mountain road in a large a/c is unlikely to have a positive outcome, any semblance of control would be lost once wings, gear, engines depart.
A more plausible scenario might be to land on a mountain meadow or glacier with a downslope to slow the deceleration. Once he gets it on the deck he is likely just along for the ride.
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