Question about the A320 Spirit planes

ScottK

ScottK

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ScottK
I had a friend returning home from Fla on Tuesday. She said they had to fly around awhile because the x-winds were too strong for them to land. I checked the conditions and found the winds were recorded as 20G30 mph from 270 for RW 23. Does that sound too extreme for that aircraft?

We did have some snow squalls earlier in the day with about 3" of new snow and I'm wondering if it was because the runways weren't great. Maybe the winds combined with a slick runway combined to restrict their landing? We have 8200' to land on 23.

Anyone with A320 experience have any ideas?
 
Not a Spirit or Airbus pilot, but at my airline the braking action will limit what kind of crosswind we can tolerate. For example my airplane is limited to 20 knots if the braking action is fair, or 10 knots if poor. At 19 knots in this instance, it's possible the runway wasn't in good enough shape for them.

We also have a 15 knot restriction if the RVR is less than 4000' (or doing an autoland), but based on your post, I didn't think that would be an issue.
 
FWIW, I just looked up the limits for our Airbuses (Airbii?), and they're the same as what I listed above. Maybe we've got a Spirit pilot that can chime in with their actual numbers.
 
Thats a crosswind component of 11G17 in knots once you do the mph->kt conversion and the trigonometry. Doesn't seem like very much to me but I don't fly airliners.
 
Doh! Forgot to convert from mph, but even at 17 knots, there are some situations where it might not be possible. And it's also possible that the pilots heard something from tower that was worse than what the OP saw reported.
 
Max demonstrated X-wind is 38 kts. That said, there could be other factors that limit it further, such as company policy, runway condition, autoland, etc..
 
also possible the OP wrote MPH and meant knots.
 
Airbus also changes xwind limits based on runway width. A narrow runway (less than 150 feet / 45 meters) has xwind limits of 38 kts dry, 33 kts wet and 10 kts contaminated.

Autoland xwind limit is 15 kts.
 
Captain said:
Airbus also changes xwind limits based on runway width. A narrow runway (less than 150 feet / 45 meters) has xwind limits of 38 kts dry, 33 kts wet and 10 kts contaminated.

Autoland xwind limit is 15 kts.
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And this agrees with my earlier post.
 
Heck, I've done more than that in a 4 place tailwheel.
 
It's Spirit air so they probably just needed to collect an extra $50 per passenger to land.
 
Could this have been a limitation related to that particular crew, maybe captain who just recently upgraded and has some company internal limitations ?
 
James331 said:
Heck, I've done more than that in a 4 place tailwheel.
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Do you exceed limitations in the PC-12 you fly on the part 135 certificate? :rolleyes:

The discussion here is a crew not exceeding a defined limitation, not how manly you are in a GA SE airplane.

As a "working ATP" you should understand the difference.
 
weilke said:
Could this have been a limitation related to that particular crew, maybe captain who just recently upgraded and has some company internal limitations ?
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No. Copilots get crosswind limitations while they're low time (<100 hrs). Captains get high mins which add 100' and a 1/2 mile to ceiling/vis requirements. But, then there's exemption 5549 which allows that to be reduced to Cat II mins if Autoland is used.

My guess to the OP is the crew was calling it contaminated and that puta 10Kt limit on them if the rwy was less than 150 feet. I didn't look up the runway though so it's just a guess.
 
Captain said:
No. Copilots get crosswind limitations while they're low time (<100 hrs). Captains get high mins which add 100' and a 1/2 mile to ceiling/vis requirements. But, then there's exemption 5549 which allows that to be reduced to Cat II mins if Autoland is used.

My guess to the OP is the crew was calling it contaminated and that puta 10Kt limit on them if the rwy was less than 150 feet. I didn't look up the runway though so it's just a guess.
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Not sure I'm interested in flying Spirit based mostly upon their amazingly bizarre way of selling tickets, but I've no cause to doubt the quality or judgment of the pilots; I bet they had good cause, and I trust (or hope) that the airline backs up pilots' discretion in decision-making.
 
RotorAndWing said:
Do you exceed limitations in the PC-12 you fly on the part 135 certificate? :rolleyes:

The discussion here is a crew not exceeding a defined limitation, not how manly you are in a GA SE airplane.

As a "working ATP" you should understand the difference.
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Sarcasm not activated? :D
 
SCCutler said:
Not sure I'm interested in flying Spirit based mostly upon their amazingly bizarre way of selling tickets, but I've no cause to doubt the quality or judgment of the pilots; I bet they had good cause, and I trust (or hope) that the airline backs up pilots' discretion in decision-making.
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Allegiant otoh would just fire the crew, including the stews ;)





A couple of weeks ago, my wife booked a redeye on Spirit so she could make it to one of our kids school events. I just groaned when I heard it asked her to consider taking a connecting flight on Delta just to avoid a Spirit misadventure. She didn't, and of course great excitement ensued when Spirit denied having a reservation with her name once she showed up with her printed boarding passes. They are just different.
 
SCCutler said:
Not sure I'm interested in flying Spirit based mostly upon their amazingly bizarre way of selling tickets, but I've no cause to doubt the quality or judgment of the pilots; I bet they had good cause, and I trust (or hope) that the airline backs up pilots' discretion in decision-making.
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How do they sell tickets??
 
N801BH said:
How do they sell tickets??
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In increments of 19 dollars.

$19 for the ticket. $25 to print a boarding pass. $50 to get a seat. $25 for room in the overhead to put your carry-on. $15 for the plane to take off, $200 for the plane to land. $45 'disembarkation fee'.....
 
weilke said:
In increments of 19 dollars.

$19 for the ticket. $25 to print a boarding pass. $50 to get a seat. $25 for room in the overhead to put your carry-on. $15 for the plane to take off, $200 for the plane to land. $45 'disembarkation fee'.....
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Oh....

I was thinking it was based on the "Peoples Express" concept 30 years ago where you get on the plane and then they come around and collect the funds..
 
N801BH said:
Oh....

I was thinking it was based on the "Peoples Express" concept 30 years ago where you get on the plane and then they come around and collect the funds..
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I flew People's several times.... Never had that experience. Always bought a ticket the old fashion way... Made a seperate trip to the airport ticket counter.
 
RotorAndWing said:
Do you exceed limitations in the PC-12 you fly on the part 135 certificate? :rolleyes:

The discussion here is a crew not exceeding a defined limitation, not how manly you are in a GA SE airplane.

As a "working ATP" you should understand the difference.
Click to expand...


They may be "limitations" when part 135, but otherwise (pt 91) you are just flying beyond the max demonstrated crosswind.
 
Kritchlow said:
I flew People's several times.... Never had that experience. Always bought a ticket the old fashion way... Made a seperate trip to the airport ticket counter.
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I never flew Peoples.. but heard numerous times that's how they collected fees..... Maybe it was an airline joke though..:dunno:
 
N801BH said:
I never flew Peoples.. but heard numerous times that's how they collected fees..... Maybe it was an airline joke though..:dunno:
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By today's standards, they weren't bad, but they were the first to charge for checked baggage.

I once almost booked a trip from Houston to Los Angeles on PeoplExpress (pre-internet, of course, so on the phone). About to give credit card number for th $99.00 round trip (amazing deal), I thought to ask where the change was (only one stop, she said...).

Newark.

Yeah, no.
 
SCCutler said:
By today's standards, they weren't bad, but they were the first to charge for checked baggage.
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and drinks and food. As you say by today's standards it wasn't bad. But it was like a greyhound bus in the sky when that was a novel concept. It also lost a lot of money.
 
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