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.
Aircraft data
- Manufacturer
- Boeing
- Model
- 747
- Variant
- -8I (Intercontinental)
- FAA approach category
- D
- MTOW
- 447700 kg (987008 lbs)
- Vref reference
- 156 kt at 312,092 kg
- Vref in flight
- Adjusted to the weight you land at
- Tail-strike limit
- 11°
- Ideal touchdown zone
- 340–750 m
- G-force curve
- The category's
- MSFS source
- Default Std, Freeware (Salty Simulations)
- FLARE matches
- Boeing 747-8I · 747-8I · 747 -8I · Boeing 747-8 · 747-8 · 747 -8 · B748
Related reading
- → How FLARE grades a landing · the composite formula behind every score
- → What "stabilized approach" actually means · the gates, the criteria, the technique
- → Wide-Body Quad Airliner scoring thresholds · the category curves applied to this airframe
- → Full scoring methodology reference · the complete breakdown in the help docs