Downwind Landings

wrote in news:1190595059.529602.74370
@n39g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

Depends heavily on the aircraft. I know for a fact that a lightly
loaded DC-10 will not be able to
land and stop at McCarran with a 10+knot tailwind. Been onboard when
it was tried and
remember going off the airport boundries at less than 30 AGL You get a
new perspective on
things when you see TV antennas go by above you and chimmneys just
below you!

Lockheed L-10A is virtually impossible to land safely with any
tailwind. It has so much tail
surface that it either slams the tail down or tries to put it on the
nose.

deHaviland Super Chipmunk with a Krier tail gets super squirrelly with
any kind of tailwind. Of
course the tail will come off the ground at about 15 knots forward
speed





These are all completely incorrect.

You can get a DC-10 at max landing weight into a 6,000 foot strip
easily. Even hot and high.

I've routinely operated an A300 into a 6,000 fooot strip with a fifteen
knot tailwind limit (which we often were up against due to the natur of
the strip) fro take off and landing.

I've landed ( a real) kissing cousin f the Lockheed 10, the Twin Beech,
with more than a 10 knot tailwind. It's fine... So would the Lockheed
be.

The Chipmunk, the same. All tailwheel airplanes get more demanding with
a tailwind as the groundspeed sinks to a point at which the surfaces
aren't doing much, but if the airplane was straight up to that point and
there isn't a massive crosswind, then the tailwheel and brakes take care
of the rest.

And I've flown a real Chipmunk...

Bertie