Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental
Target for the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental
60 to 120fpm
Full marks for descent rate up to 120 fpm; under 60 fpm the coach says the touchdown was softer than this aircraft is normally flown.
- Vref reference
- 156ktat 312,092 kg
- Tail-strike limit
- 11°this aircraft's own
- Ideal touchdown zone
- 340 to 750mpast the threshold
- G-force
- 1.10Gfull marks, the category's curve
The 747-8I is the longest 4-holer Boeing ever built: 76 m of fuselage with the main gear positioned where your forward CG demands a feel for where you are in 3D space that the 737 just doesn't require. Tail strikes happen on the 747-8 at pitch attitudes airline pilots wouldn't touch on the original -400.
Landing technique.
Pitch limit is around 9°, meaningfully less than the -400 because the fuselage is 5.6 m longer. Don't rotate past it on touchdown.
Cross the threshold at Vref + 5. The Queen is so heavy that a few knots in either direction translates to enormous changes in flare timing.
Touchdown is well aft of where the cockpit is. You're sitting ~30 m forward of the main gear. The wheels touch about a second after your visual cue says 'now'.
Crab the crosswind approach; this aircraft is too long for wing-down technique on landing.
Reverse thrust on all four engines, but watch the asymmetric thrust feel if one engine is slow to spool, the 747's rudder authority is enormous but you'll need to use it.
Common mistakes.
Over-rotation on touchdown causing tail strike, the most-reported real-world 747-8 hard-landing event.
Insufficient flare due to the visual lag, pilots accustomed to shorter airframes initiate too late.
Floating into long landings, at MTOW, every extra knot of speed translates to ~300 ft of float.
How its touchdown is scored.
The score at each point of its curves. Between the points, scores fall in a straight line; the full method is in the scoring methodology.
No shared landings or board for this aircraft yet. Its figures appear once pilots with a public profile have shared 5 graded landings in it, and a board once at least 5 opted-in pilots have flown it 10 or more times each. See the boards there are.
For reference.
Aircraft data
- Manufacturer
- Boeing
- Model
- 747
- Variant
- -8I (Intercontinental)
- FAA approach category
- D
- MTOW
- 447,700 kg (987,008 lbs)
- Vref in flight
- Adjusted to the weight you land at
- MSFS source
- Default Std, Freeware (Salty Simulations)
- Category
- Wide-Body Quad Airliner
Roundout recognizes it in a title that contains
Boeing 747-8I747-8I747 -8IBoeing 747-8747-8747 -8B748
The rest of the Boeing 747 family
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$23.99 once.
Every landing in the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, graded against these numbers. Every update included, and tax or VAT in most countries.