Reverse Thrust or Brakes?

When an airplane lands on the runway, does it use both reverse thrust and your normal toe brakes, or does it only use the reverse thrust until 60-ish knots? Have been using them both for ages now and was wondering if this is a correct procedure.

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I think it’s till 45 knots.

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I’ve also wondered this I’m sure it all depends on which exit they need to take. @DeerCrusher could awnser this for us.

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in this video the co-pilot immediately said after landing (9:09)
Spoiler,Reverse Green, BTV
so i think both of them is the right answer

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I use both. I think you definitely need it for short runways, but maybe not for longer ones.

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It depends. There are many factors such as runway length. Finally you would use thrust reverser until 60-50kts and the use your breaks. If its a short runway. You should apply my breaking. :)

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I use @stevenwalker109’s method. Please don’t take this as a real life’s method, however it works for IF. Makes the landing and exit smooth and looking good.

  • 70/80% reverse thrust until 60/70 knots
  • Reverse thrust to idle
  • Brakes then on until needed
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I know that Southwest will use more breaks than reverse thrust because brakes are cheaper to replace then engines

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Nice ā€œfactā€ you got there

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I already saw planes leaving the runway and still with the reverses on. (short runways mostly)

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Majority of the time, ok, almost every time, a plane lands utilizing all available thrust reversers. There are some cases when it one out of the two in this case, is only used. Depending on what the winds are like on the field upon landing the pilot may been more directional control than what he currently has at his disposal. (Rudder is used to pivot areoundnthe vertical axis) in cases where the winds are a strong crosswind, rudder input may not be great enough to keep the plane tracking down the runway. So the engine on the side of the wind, would have the reverser deployed. This video doesn’t appear to be very windy, but goes to show that it is possible. Procedures are all different from airline to airline and the practice varies a little bit. And like @MishaCamp replied that is a great practice for IF. I use those steps pretty closely.

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That’s exactly how i use it as well. When I hit 60 knots I sent throttle to idle and apply breaks, coming to about 30-20 knots G/S and taxiiing off the runway. If ATC needs me to expedite I’ll apply both on touchdown and exit the soonest I can.

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MaxSez: Consider this IF Feature; All IF aircraft have ā€œAuto Brakes/AntiSkidā€ just like almost all modern airliners, Believe it or not! Give them a try. When you dirty up on Approach set the brake, use Reverser as described above, reliese the brake when you reach taxi speed. Use the rudder brakes to exit the rwy & maneuvering. Try it you’ll like it. Just Sayin…

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From what I know, here’s how it goes in real life. On approach, the pilots select the required level of auto-brakes, ranging from low-med-high. Upon touchdown, there is a certain logic which determines when the spoilers are deployed, which is something like that there should be weight on the wheels and the wheels should be spinning above a certain speed. The auto-brakes are also deployed. Now, as explained by @DeerCrusher, the reverse thrusters are used, until I believe it’s 80 knots. The auto-brakes work until the pilot presses on the top part of the rudder pedals which activates manual braking. The pilot can also use differential braking which is applying more brakes on for example the left section of wheel than the right section of wheels by pressing more on the top part of the left rudder pedals than the right ones. I may be wrong on what I mentioned above so maybe some real pilots can correct me on that.

However, try this in IF I find that we’re able to stop unrealistically too soon. So for that I slow down in a way which is similar to what @MishaCamp mentioned above and I find that it uses a fairly decent amount of runway space just like in real life.

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I dont know wich planes are on IF, but there are some that using reverse thrust alone wont slow you down almost anything. I always use the reverse thrust and apply the brakes on & off until reaching my exit. Like said before, if you leave the brake on it will slow down and stop unrealistically quick. I been on flights IRL were the pilots dont use any reverse thrust in some cases.

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Does the rudder brake not use the same braking force in IF as the ā€˜brake’ button?

Nope the harder down you pull the harder you break, really quite useful and helpful for those relasistic landings.

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CJ, Mr. Walker provided the correct response. Thanks Steve. Max

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I have seen this pulling down on the rudder brake thing mentioned innumerable times on here, and I keep trying it, to no avail.

Am I crazy? Am I the only one for whom this doesn’t seem to work? It seems to work for everyone else.

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You use Reverse thrust and brakes. However IF only has parking brakes. If you used the IF brakes irl your tires would go boom

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