@Odhiambo the full throttle your talking about is actually a reverse thrust. so with flaps fully open and some sort of a latch or panel usually towards the back of the jext engine housing, this would normally redirect the thrust exhaust from blowing backwards to a more forward direction..this changes the direction the thrust is operating and slows down the plane. without it most of our runways would come out short

From: skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke [mailto:skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke] On Behalf Of Odhiambo ?????
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 4:07 PM
To: Skunkworks forum
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Air France: Turbulence brought it down?

2009/6/4 Gituma Nturibi <gnturibi@gmail.com>

@andrew I was told that a pilot does not land the plane, it lands itself!

yep a landing is a controlled crash basically you make the aircraft
loose lift and then it brings itself down to the ground, the work of
the pilot is to make sure this is done smoothly.

I beg to disagree!

There is so much work for a pilot to do to land a plane that I cannot let that be compared to a crash!
In a crash, the pilot does everything in his power not to let the kite go down uncontrolled.
In landing, s/he does everything in his power to ensure that the aircraft touches down safely. Just FYI, whenever a plane is landing, the pilot engages full throttle (max power) just the same way s/he does during take off. There is all that work to ensure it touches down from the rear undercarriage, then the nosewheel, leveling, etc - quite a "controlled crash" indeed. The pilot who said that must have been joking.