By request:
Airports at high altitude – like Guadalajara at 5,016’ or Denver at 5,404’ – require a little extra care.
The air is thinner. The control surfaces have less to “grab” or “bite”, so the controls are a little sloppier than normal.
On a hot day, the “Density Altitude” gets even higher. Essentially, like everything else the atmosphere expands when it gets hot, and the air molecules are farther apart. So while Denver’s actual elevation doesn’t change, the air has a density that you would normally find at higher altitudes. I don’t know what the record for DEN is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets to 9,000’ or more.
(This measurement of density altitude is possible because aviation uses a “Standard Day” as a baseline to measure against. I don’t know how they picked the conditions of a standard day, but they decided on a set of measurements which we’ll compare everything against)
Anyway, a high Density Altitude can be dangerous. With the air molecules further apart, not only are the controls a little sloppier, but the engines produce less thrust at the same power setting. Less thrust means slower acceleration on takeoff, coupled with reduced climb rates. For smaller aircraft, it may not be possible to takeoff at all…at least not safely. This kills people fairly regularly when they don’t run the performance numbers…even airline pilots flying Cessnas on their own time. In the summer at certain places, you either take off in the early morning or you don’t take off at all.
This is part of the reason Denver has such long runways. They are all at least 12,000’ long, and 34L is 16,000’ long, about 3 miles. On a hot day, you may need all of it to get off the ground…and if you lose an engine, you may not be able to clear the terrain using even the special departure procedures designed for an engine failure on takeoff. We see a few days a year where they have to start removing passengers or canceling flights out of places like Phoenix or Las Vegas for these reasons…*if* you lose an engine on takeoff, you are going to hit a mountain. Sure, the jet could do it *if* you don’t lose an engine, but we always have to assume we will & plan to that. It’s just not safe.
Anyway, on landing you will be flying at the same airspeeds you normally do, but airspeed is based on how much air is flowing over the wings. It’s not the same as ground speed…which in this case, will be much higher than you’re accustomed to.
You arrive at the runway a little faster than you expected. You’re aiming to not “float” down the runway too far before touching down…you’ll be using it up fast. Delayed your “flare” (pulling back on the yoke to cut your descent rate). When you do flare, it’s not as responsive as you expect it to be. There is not time to correct it & you punish both the jet & runway for your sins.
I don’t know that this is what happened in the video & can’t make that claim. I’m just trying to explain some of the hazards of high field elevation & hot days, or “Hot & High” as we say.
As a fun fact, the highest public use airport in North America is Leadville (Lake County) airport, CO, at 9,934’. The highest commercial airport (in the U.S.) is Telluride, CO at 9,078’.
The highest airport in the world is Daocheng Yading in China, with a field elevation of 14,472’.
As with all my posts, keep in mind I’m trying to simplify things for non-aviation readers. So while I think you’ll get it now, there is always more to the story!
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Cam’ron just set the story straight on “Letter to Dame” 🔥🐐
From “I Am Dame Dash” to “Letter To Dame” Cam has done nothing but keep it real. This one gonna hit Dame in the heart, he absolutely smoked this.
Full song debuts tomorrow on Talk With Flee (5pm ET)
🚨🎥 | Never forget The day Nike planned to spend the whole day filming an advertisement. But Ronaldinho got there and got it right on the first take and said;
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Last night I captured over 60k photos of the largest supermoon of the year using two telescopes to reveal the hidden color in 119 megapixels. I call the print "Artemis Beckons", after the next crewed lunar mission.
See the reply for the up close details and explanation 👇