Today we will talk about tail strike events in aviationón, incidents that happen más followed by what we imagine, but they always generate news. Airbus Foto Photos
If you follow industry news atéarea regularly, I'm sure you saw the news sometime: Avión model XXXXX of the aerolínea Patito Air sufrió tail strike while landing in windy conditions at a world airport.
That news comes withñada with a photo as the main one of this publicationón and generates thousands of interactions againéit doesn't go viral.
The idea of this publicationón is to know más about this event «tail stroke», although its translationón to spyñol sounds horrible, let's talk better in téterms in englishés since this is the main language of aviationón, allows us to delve deeper into the matter.
¿Whaté you're a tail strike?
Let's first review the official definitions. For instance Boeing in his páwebsite mentions it as:
Tail strike, which occurs when an airplane tail contacts the runway during takeoff or landing, is an event that can be encountered by virtually all transport airplane designs.
On the other hand, the THERE IT IS defines it this way:
Tail impact accidents occur when the aircraft's attitude is such that the tail makes contact with the runway.,
during takeoff or landing or even during go-around maneuver (aborted landing), provokingñthe substantial.
With this context, we can define that in aviationón, A tail strike is an event in which the rear of an aircraftón hits, bumps or scrapes the track. This can happen during takeoff, landing or even during taxiing (in the event of a weight and balance error).
Caused by a tail strike
With clear definitions that can be given in various stages of the aircraft's movement, We are now going to review the causes of a tail strike, which can be diverse., but the mácommon ones are the following:
- Excessive lifting of the nose of the avión. This can occur if the pilot pulls the stick too hard during takeoff or landing..
- Ráwind sheaves. Strong winds can cause the aircraft to tilt backwards.ás and hit the tail against the track. Spaghettién descending winds like wind shear are capable of generating this situationón.
- Too short a track. If the track is too short, the grandfatherón may not have enough time to reach enough speed to take off without hitting the tail, what caníto generate greater «lifting» of the nose generating a touch of tail.
- Pilot error. An inexperienced or distracted pilotícan make a mistake that causes a tail strike más if the previous conditions are added.
Risks of a tail strike
At least one hundred tail strikes are reported per yearñO, which can cause damageños al avión, including:
- Dents or cracks in the fuselage, having to leave the avión on the ground for reviewón and repairón.
- Andños to the rear landing gear in case of hard landing combined with tail strike.
- In extreme cases, a tail strike can even cause an accident.
Cóhow to avoid a «tail stroke»
There are a number of measures that can be taken to avoid tail strike., including:
- Tail skid: a system that not all airplanes have and that generates an audible alert in the cockpit, alerting pilots that the tail isá hitting the floor.
- Formationón proper pilots. Pilots must be trained to recognize conditions that can cause a tail strike and cóHow to avoid it by recognizing the situations that can generate it.
- There are airplanes considered málong s, what are más prone to these situations, so proper training in its operationón is essential.
- Proper flight planning. Pilots must take into account weather conditionsórules and runway length when planning a flight.
A tail strike is a serious event that can cause injury.ños al avióno and, in extreme cases, even an accident. Thus, Part of training and trainingóconstant n of the pilots treat these events to minimize the risk of occurrences.
