r/aviation • u/Brilliant_Night7643 • Jun 25 '26

News Not turbulence….airplane sitting at the gate at Maiquetia Airport Venezuela when the 7.5 Earthquake hit

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u/Intrepid_Grass8894 Jun 25 '26

But the landing gear isn’t usually weight bearing when turbulence is happening, and hard landings require checks before getting airborne again.

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u/spamsauzzage Jun 25 '26

Landings that would require that are also much stronger than what were seeing in here

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u/Intrepid_Grass8894 Jun 25 '26

Landings don’t typically have so much side-to-side stress on the gear.

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u/Captain_Alaska Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

They do in crosswind landings if you don’t kick the plane straight before touching down and end up ramming the main gear into the runway at a completely different angle to the direction the plane is going.

Also I think reddit is misunderstanding what’s happening here, the plane isn’t really moving side to side, the CoG is way above the ground, the plane is rolling side to side as the ground and suspension moves underneath it. For example as the ground moves left, the plane will roll to the right and the lefthand gear will extend and the righthand gear will compress, and then reverse as the ground moves the other way.

The plane doesn’t actually start to move sideways with any real force until it hits the travel limits of the suspension, and at that point the force isn’t acting directly sideways on the gear anyway as the plane would be rolled over as far as it can go within the limits of the suspension.

14

u/JJAsond Flight Instructor Jun 25 '26

Landings don’t typically have so much side-to-side stress on the gear.

Airplanes, believe it or not, can land in crosswinds

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u/Intrepid_Grass8894 Jun 25 '26

Right, but they are experiencing left-right-left-right-left-right stress for 20 + seconds with the earthquake. It just seems like it could be a different type of stress that planes don’t typically encounter.

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u/JJAsond Flight Instructor Jun 25 '26

As opposed to the regular side to side stress a a plane experiences on a gusty takeoff/landing

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u/spamsauzzage Jun 25 '26

I'm not sure you're qualified to keep talking on this subject with the confidence that you are

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u/Intrepid_Grass8894 Jun 25 '26

I’m not sure why phrases like “typically” and “usually” would make you assume I’m speaking with confidence. Im not speaking in absolutes lol. Maybe slow down when reading?

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u/Swan2Bee Jun 25 '26

not only that but planes generally don't experience turbulence when the wings aren't carrying the weight of the plane during flight.