4 ms·
My understanding from someone who knows about this (please forgive my lack of knowledge as I am attempting to relay what they told me) was that they used to ste
by boyter 3y ago
My understanding from someone who knows about this (please forgive my lack of knowledge as I am attempting to relay what they told me) was that they used to step down when going to land at fixed points to avoid turbulence and hold those levels.
The levels were picked to provide the customers a comfortable ride, based on reports from other planes and whatever other sources they have.
They have since been told to save on fuel and so don't do this, not "gliding" but lowering the thrust to save fuel when descending which exposes people to the rougher air for longer periods of time.
Please correct my understanding if this is not the case.
- somerandomqaguy 3y agoDisclaimer, I'm not a pilot so it's very possible I'm wrong. But I think you might want to ask your friend to clarify this as I'm having a hard time understanding. That said I think there's some terminology mix up. The path of the aircraft is taking when making a landing (the slope the poster is talking about) is called the glidepath. It's got nothing to do with the engines or the aircraft type. The stepping down might be the pattern used as the plane is being maneuvered to line up with the runway but AFAIK those are just to setup for landing rather then being a part of the actually landing itself once the controller clears the pilot land.