I was working for Flight Dynamics, designing Heads Up displays for commercial aircraft. These displays provided critical flight information and guidance cues that could guide a pilot to a nearly perfect landing in visual conditions where he literally can't see the runway from the cockpit after he's on the ground. Some of our experiences showed that the navigational beacons became pretty much useless after touchdown, so a follow-on project was developed to provide roll-out guidance to keep the plane on the runway after touch-down.
This project was being flight tested by the FAA using a boeing 737-400 we had borrowed from Alaskan Airlines and outfitted with a bunch of telemetry to analyze the flight characteristics. The FAA had a whole series of landing tests they wanted to see- grooved runways, non-grooved runways, cross winds, wet runways, etc. One of the most expensive tests called for standing water on a non-grooved runway. Now there are only two cat-3 capable runways int he US that are not grooved. The closest one was Roswell New Mexico. Yes, standing water. In New Mexico. In the summer. We hired several water tankers to flood the runway with 50,000 gallons of water about five minutes before we landed.
But the most fun test for me was a full-weight, full center of gravity forward landing. With all their sandbags in the cargo hold shoved as far forward as they would go, they still couldn't get the center of gravity far enough forward. They needed people to sit in the seats at the front of the plane. And they couldn't just pick people off the street, because this was an "experimental aircraft." So they had to be Flight Dynamics employees. They collected about twenty or so engineers and loaded us on a bus and took us to Portland Airport, where we boarded the "experimental aircraft." We took off, expecting to do a couple of landings and call it good.
Well the pilot spun his whiz-wheel after wheels up, and realized the plane was overweight for a safe landing. We needed to fly around for a half hour or so to burn off enough fuel to get the weight down. So we did a relatively low (7000' feet) pass over the north side of Mt. St. Helens, got to look right in the crater from the comfort of a 737, then flew back to Portland for a zero visibility landing (they put a pillow on the windscreen to block the pilot's view, it was a clear, beautiful day).
Yes, I have found my niche in life. I am ballast. Watch me sit.
This project was being flight tested by the FAA using a boeing 737-400 we had borrowed from Alaskan Airlines and outfitted with a bunch of telemetry to analyze the flight characteristics. The FAA had a whole series of landing tests they wanted to see- grooved runways, non-grooved runways, cross winds, wet runways, etc. One of the most expensive tests called for standing water on a non-grooved runway. Now there are only two cat-3 capable runways int he US that are not grooved. The closest one was Roswell New Mexico. Yes, standing water. In New Mexico. In the summer. We hired several water tankers to flood the runway with 50,000 gallons of water about five minutes before we landed.
But the most fun test for me was a full-weight, full center of gravity forward landing. With all their sandbags in the cargo hold shoved as far forward as they would go, they still couldn't get the center of gravity far enough forward. They needed people to sit in the seats at the front of the plane. And they couldn't just pick people off the street, because this was an "experimental aircraft." So they had to be Flight Dynamics employees. They collected about twenty or so engineers and loaded us on a bus and took us to Portland Airport, where we boarded the "experimental aircraft." We took off, expecting to do a couple of landings and call it good.
Well the pilot spun his whiz-wheel after wheels up, and realized the plane was overweight for a safe landing. We needed to fly around for a half hour or so to burn off enough fuel to get the weight down. So we did a relatively low (7000' feet) pass over the north side of Mt. St. Helens, got to look right in the crater from the comfort of a 737, then flew back to Portland for a zero visibility landing (they put a pillow on the windscreen to block the pilot's view, it was a clear, beautiful day).
Yes, I have found my niche in life. I am ballast. Watch me sit.
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