Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Airbus A380 Approach and Landing at San Francisco

A friend of DIT who is a pilot sends us interesting flying videos from time to time.

This time she found another one that is really interesting.

What is it?

Well, as explained in her email:

"This is pretty interesting to watch. The pilots sit away from everything, no yoke, etc. Captain pulls up a keyboard once in a while to enter info ... but the plane does most of the work.

The humongous A380 makes its first landing at San Francisco airport. It seems extensively automated. When the air traffic controller gives them heading, altitude, and speed, they dial it in. Looks like it (almost) lands itself, too. Pretty interesting." ...
You will notice that this is the German Airline, Lufthansa, and this was the maiden flight into San Francisco by the Big Airbus A380.
Why do we mention that?
Because, if you continue to watch after the landing you will hear the Music and see the Water welcome ceremony which is done for important flights such as this.
This is a rather longish video (14 minutes 25 seconds) -- but if you are a pilot, a wannabe pilot, or have wondered what goes on in the cockpit, then this video is for you.
You might even want to view this more than once.  We did.

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