High take off angle

amen

just noticed that there is a Aviation forum on boards.ie but anyway

was flying Air LingusDublin-> Chicago on Sunday 7th Jan 2007 (rather windy day) and on take the plan had what seemed to be an unusaul take off angle. It started off normal but as we climbed it felt in exess of 30 degrees (more like 45) and as the plane got higher it felt as though we slowed then and then all of a sudden we levelled out with quite a severe downward movement.

Is this normal in very windy weather out of Dublin ?
I suppose I should say I haven't flown that much (maybe 40-50 flights) and most of that was in the USA.

FlutterinBantam

45 degrees ...doubt it... probably to avoid some "weather" after t/o or to comply with an ATC request pertaining to following traffic.

cp251

Were you to the back of the Airbus in an aisle seat? It's a long old bird and the sensation of steepness is enhanced by that. In any case the fly by wire system would not have allowed to aircraft to climb at more than 30 degrees. So that's the maximum it could be. It's difficult to judge from inside. On windy days there is an enhanced impression of climb because obviously you cover less ground for more height. The groundspeed being that much less.

amen

nope was at the front (business class)

might have been the wind just seemed very steep to me ahh well maybe its the airbus!!

Fulmar

Normal climb angle would be about 15. On a windy day, with an increasing wind gradient with altitude, the angle has to be raised to prevent the airspeed rising too quickly. When you run out of the increasing gradient in the climb the nose gets lowered to prevent the airspeed reducing, which it can very rapidly. There are other factors such as pressure and temperature on the day and the heavier the aircraft the lower the climb angle, the more thrust that is used for take off the greater.