Tail Strike Upon Landing

[FlyingPhotog]

Here's what must be a VERY recent tailstrike !

Notice it says "2005" in th lower corner, so it's not recent.

[v1images]

You mat find this intresting, Chris...

WOW that is one crazy landing :O

[474218]

I spent 20 years in L-1011 Product Support and worked on maybe a dozen tail strikes (tail drags) and everyone of them was on landing.

[thecloudbuster]

The RJ100 is one aeroplane I've operated that is very easy to tail strike, especially off a steep approach! Most of the time it is just a case of replacing the skid plate, however I have seen a more serious dent! (not after my landing I add!!)

Landing Tail strikes are normally due to over-rotaing the nose in order to arrest the rate of decent due to getting too slow and not having enough lift when at the correct landing attitude. This can happen during a floaty landing, unstable approach speed into the flare, gusty wind, miscalculating the landing weight, to mention a few. Some aeroplanes, the RJ100, A321, I guess the A340-600 etc have quiet fine margins between the correct attitude and a tailstrike attitude. Some aeroplanes have sensors which detect how close the tail gets during rotation and landing (based on weight on wheels and pitch data) and automatically send the evidence to the boss!