Landing without flaps

Real World Aviation
1

This question is dedicated to pilot that fly’s real airplanes.

Is it possible to land without any flaps?

2

Flaps are used to increase lift at slower speeds. I can’t imagine larger jets wanting to land at 200+ knots.

3

You can:

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4

I like the live commentary

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5

It is possible to land without flaps, but it’s very rare and mostly only done if the flaps don’t work.

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6

@Aernout @PH-AJO @Heavydriver

Let’s see if you can get some answers from real world pilots, as you wanted to.

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8

I’m surprised they did not use the manual flap extension system to get at least Flaps 15. I’m going to guess something actually seized up on the flaps.

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9

I didn’t know manual flaps existed.

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11

If you land without flaps can you slow down earlier and have the flight spoiler on to at least reach 170 to 180 knots for landing ?

12

It is possible but only happens when they fail, your speed will be very high which will give you 2 main issues:

  • runway length needed and brake temperatures.
  • high pitch required for the flare which could result in a tail strike.
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13

in addition to anything anyone has said above it makes the landing far harder hence the need to find the sweet spot above the stall

14

Can you try to explain that again please?

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16

And the tires deflating because the landing speed exceeds the one recommended by the manufacturer.

19

Sorry haha got no sleep :p basically and I’m sure you know better on this but by moving faster your margin for error is reduced and the likely chance that you will hit the ground harder is increased too. Hence the need to find the right landing speed (the sweet spot just above stall)

20

No one lands at “just above stall” in any situation unless you really have no thrust. To do so gives you far too little safety margin. For example, the 737-800 QRH dictates you prepare for landing at VREF 40 + 55 knots when you can’t set flaps beyond 1.

For GA aircraft you are almost stalling the plane as you land - if you ever watch any videos on youtube you can hear the stall warning sometimes going off. That is not the case for commercial jets.

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21

Great because I’m only speaking from my own flying experience good to know it’s not so clear cut

22

I sometimes land without flaps (GAs). Happens rarely though.

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23

I’m glad I’m not the only one that was trying to make sense of that

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