Reverse Thrust

Bandit_Driver said:
Ok I have been doing a lot of deadhead travel lately and found one common theme in most of the RJ's I have been on. The apparent mis-use of reverse thrust. In the majority of cases the crew never selected reverse thrust until quite far into the landing roll and then only got on it hard for a second or two. Then it was back on the brakes hard. What are they teaching in schools these days? Reverse thrust is most effect when used at high speeds and early in the landing roll.
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Not sure what the policy was when you used to fly the plane that I'm flying right now but we're just expected to put the reverse in idle and use brakes if the runway is dry. As you probably recall you can easily lose 20-30 knots with brakes in the time it takes the reverse to even kick in.
 
In the E145 I almost never used reverse thrust aside from always popping the buckets once the mains touched down (assuming the air ground logic actually worked correctly, which it often did not). If you made a smooth landing, the air ground logic did not even sense "ground" until 5 seconds or so into the landing roll (after de-rotating), and as other's have said, you need to be idle by 60 anyway. Plus you're in a small jet and operating into airports with 10,000 ft runways most of the time (making your turnoff with only brakes and idle reverse was not a problem). Even for the 747 they've told us that the difference between full reverse and idle is only a few hundred feet of landing distance. Granted they're trying to persuade us to save fuel, but I believe it. I'd speculate that the cascading type reversers on the 747 aren't as effective as 727-type clamshells either.

Unfortunately there's probably some negative transfer from habitually using only idle reverse. You're likely to be more hesitant to use full reverse when it is truly needed.
 
Unless you are empty on the -900 the reversers don't do anything but make noise. If the captain lets me I just crack them and use the brakes. They take forever to open and you have to have the nosewheel down (in accords with the POM) to use them.

Of course if you float down 1/2 the runway trying to make that "SWEET LANDING!", do what you have to and look like a clown.
 
Nick said:
Not sure what the policy was when you used to fly the plane that I'm flying right now but we're just expected to put the reverse in idle and use brakes if the runway is dry. As you probably recall you can easily lose 20-30 knots with brakes in the time it takes the reverse to even kick in.
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We are always trying to quick turn so we try to use the brakes at little as possible to save wear and tear. Also if we heat them up a lot we have to follow a brake cooling chart. We can usually stop the plane on reverse thrust alone, depending on the runway length. 10,000 and longer we have to add power to make to the end at idle reverse. Use full reverse and you can slow pretty quickly especially if you get them out early.
 
We are stopping 36K to 43K in weight. Not 110K+. So we don't need the help of reversers. I only use them on runways that are less than 6500 feet, and only so it makes everyone feel better. They don't really do much in an ERJ. The brakes will do just fine.

If I feel we need reversers due to runway length, you'll know it from touchdown. I'll firmly plan the airplane right in the touchdown zone, and brakes/reverse will be out immediately. Even so, it's still just for "cool factor." Everyone thinks the loud engines are rapidly stopping the plane, but it's really me slamming on the brakes. For some reason people feel better when the airplane loudly comes to a stop instead of just stopping with brakes.
 
mshunter said:
I'd hate to be the cleaning crew on that plane! And I'd hate to be the maint. crew that had to go in after a cleaning crew did a bad job even worse!
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We do a lot of animal charters. The containers they are in do contain all the waste. It's really a non-issue.
 
Alchemy said:
Even for the 747 they've told us that the difference between full reverse and idle is only a few hundred feet of landing distance.
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That's a -400 deal, since it has carbon brakes. They like the heat, and stop the jet without getting the brakes too hot, but warm them up enough to keep the carbon from wearing too quickly. You'll still see them smoking on a post flight. The -200 has steel brakes and we used reverse to keep the brake application minimal. They got hot easy, even at the light landing weights we flew at.


As an aside, to the IDLE BY 60, the devil is in the details. They want your thrust levers (previous life) or reverse levers at idle by 60, but not stow anything until idle N1 is reached.
:tmyk:​
 
Yeah, our instructor has already been badgering us with "don't stow the reversers until the n1's are all at 40%"! I'll have to push the 60 knots-40 knots garbage out of my head.
 
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