Miss Clinique

When I look out the office window, which is situated on the approach to Pearson airport. I can see planes with their landing gear down on the approach to the run way. What puzzles me is, one plane will have its nose tilted down, while another a few minutes later at the same point of approach might have its nose slightly up. Why is that?

lmartin999

I will happily give ground to The Aviator, but I think it's only around 3 degrees from horizontal for landing, so not very noticeable?

Auld Yin

Different aircraft types, I would imagine. One of the "air" experts will no doubt be along with the real explanation.

Alan2005

Drunken pilots probably

Miss Clinique

JonboyE

I think I prefer to land "nose up" as it were. The back wheels look a lot more substantial.

Maybe the "nose down" planes are just correcting their descent?

macadian

Aircraft 'type' is probably the determining factor....

Miss Clinique

I think its really interesting. I will start to keep a log, so when I find out the reason why, I will know which airline I have to avoid if necessary.

Steve_P

You'll have to keep a log of which ones crash if you're looking for an airline to avoid based on the angle of attack of an aircraft on approach.

Wind speed and speed of the aircraft (whether they've been asked to keep the speed up or slow down) due to other aircraft on approach would be at least two reasons.

There are so many reasons for the changes you really need a pilot (The Aviatior) to explain.

Miss Clinique

Where are you aviator?