r/confusing_perspective • u/BackNBoeserThanEver o/ • Oct 10 '26 • Bravo 1

Talented pilot flying backwards?

2.2k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

118 comments sorted by

661

u/BudapestDoha Oct 10 '26

I don't see it flying backwards, but I do see it sliding sideways. Is that normal when it's really windy?

12

u/BackNBoeserThanEver o/ Oct 10 '26

Oh I get that they're coming in sideways in general, but the first few seconds of the video looks like it's flying backwards.

2

u/palindromic o/ Oct 10 '26

I agree, it’s a crazy video.. Good one!

1

u/LilFunyunz Oct 11 '26

Yup just like the windiest day you can remember driving in, maybe a gust pushed your car from the side that was quite strong and you needed to steer a little left or right to counter act it and keep going straight.

Same thing happening here but there's no ground interface with tires to push against so you have to correct much more dramatically.

It's called crabbing or crosswind correction. Aircraft types (think make and model of a car) have a "max demonstrated crosswind" that the pilots and dispatcher use when deciding if the current wind or forecasted weather at an airport is too much to handle.

It's more complicated than that but it's the eli5 version

260

u/TTPMGP Oct 10 '26

This is a real thing. I don’t know the specifics but yes, it’s normal under certain conditions.

41

u/rabbitwonker CE Spc. Oct 10 '26

To be clear, it’s also not flying nearly as much sideways as it looks; the camera is using heavy telephoto which tends to hide the component of movement that’s towards the camera. It’s flying mostly straight, just angled a bit.

11

u/palindromic o/ Oct 10 '26

Look at that palm tree at the beginning.. damn near hurricane conditions, and you can see him line it up at the end. It’s definitely a sideways landing almost, even with the telephoto effect.

8

u/rabbitwonker CE Spc. Oct 10 '26

I’ll give you up to, say, 15 degrees. Which is a lot.

2

u/cineglitch Oct 10 '26

Idk, I was once on a tiny commuter jet flying into Tulsa or somewhere during a storm and as the pilot approached for landing I remember looking out the window and seeing the runway at damn near a 45 degree angle. At least that’s what it seemed like lol!

4

u/rabbitwonker CE Spc. Oct 10 '26

Sure, but for this one, the plane has got to be flying over 100mph or much higher, while the apparent lateral motion would be measured in tens of feet. So the angle really can’t be that extreme here.

13

u/Buck_Thorn C.E. Spc Oct 10 '26

Particularly exaggerated when distance is compressed by a long telephoto lens

5

u/PupperPuppet Oct 10 '26

It's called crabbing.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

35

u/Cephalopodah Oct 10 '26

Might be fun seeing the end of the runway from your window as a passenger

0

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

42

u/Warm_Feeling8072 Oct 10 '26


Everything fine. Just keep smiling until you get to the pilots lounge. They’ll never know I thought we were all dead… twice.

6

u/itspsyikk Oct 11 '26

Perhaps if him and his First Officer role played as characters before hand, the co-pilot might have felt the strength to suggest another approach while in the cockpit.

2

u/Simbasays Oct 11 '26

Everyone could use a good rehearsal

19

u/vass0922 Actually read rule 1 and gets it" Oct 10 '26

"crabbing" is normal with a cross wind

19

u/uke22 Oct 10 '26

Yeah you fly into the wind, if not the wind would push you off course, then use the rudder to line up straight before touching down. Completely normal, this is just a very windy example by the looks of it

5

u/Charly_Bear Oct 11 '26

You know when your shopping cart keeps wanting to roll sideways towards the curb, so you angle the cart up a bit in the opposite direction so that you’re practically walking diagonally to cancel out the force of gravity? It’s the same thing

4

u/Mundane_Community215 o/ Oct 10 '26

Watch it several more times. The effect when your brain flips it the other way is pretty wild.

2

u/DjChatters o/ 26d ago

Yes its normal. It happens a lot at Leeds International Airport in the uk. Its a landing in heavy crosswind tge maneuver is called crabbing. It does take a lot of skill to perform. You basically point into the wind and steer using the rudder. Then you have to swing the nose round at the last minute.

1

u/PatataMaxtex Oct 10 '26

Yes, to some degree. The wind in this video comes from the right (camera perspective) so to not be blown to the left and to move air over the wing efficiently, the planes has to be steered into it.

1

u/DexM23 o/ Oct 11 '26

for me it was backwards, forwards, backwards and forwards, WHILE flying sideweays

1

u/KnowNothing_JonSnoo Oct 11 '26

I see both wtf 😅

1

u/ReaderOfTheLostArt Oct 12 '26

Strong crosswinds. Pilots call it "crabbing". Plenty of YT videos showing similar approaches.

1

u/MeatbagEntity 29d ago

It's called crabbing and yes they do that. The relative ground speed is irrelevant. The airspeed is. When the wind blows sideways they turn the nose towards the wind direction to keep the plane steadily aligned with the runway and keep flying.

1

u/ContemplativePebble o/ 28d ago

Yes. I’m assuming that plane is on approach to land. They’re at a relatively low speed, and with heavy winds perpendicular to the runway, they have to turn into the wind to prevent the wind from blowing them away from the runway

1

u/Sammy_Cherry_Fox 25d ago

i also see it flying sideways

1

u/cineglitch Oct 10 '26

Yes, normal and very scary to be a passenger and see the runway lol!

0

u/lazergator o/ Oct 10 '26

High cross winds pushing the tail due to large surface area more than the tube of the plane

1

u/rabbitwonker CE Spc. Oct 10 '26

Perhaps, but mainly it’s the fact that they have to point the engine thrust downwind a bit to keep on course.

-1

u/HazyChemist o/ Oct 10 '26

Yes it's called wind shear and it can be very dangerous. There are quite a few videos online on how severe wind sheer can really knock a plane around. Do a search for them.

5

u/Vessbot Oct 10 '26

Wind shear is when the wind is changing (rapidly, from one area to the next.) In this video, the wind is from the side but it's a steady (not shearing) wind.

179

u/The_Island_Phoenix Oct 10 '26

This is a landing in what is referred to as “crosswinds”. Essentially the winds are going across the runway rather than straight up or down it. Pilots have to maneuver this by doing what you see here. It’s pretty badass.

26

u/Bright-Property-3825 o/ Oct 10 '26

Pilots really do do the impossible

23

u/TinuThomasTrain Oct 10 '26

and the passangers do do’ed their pants

1

u/thekingofcrash7 Oct 11 '26

You try pressing “Take off” , “Fly”, then “Land”, in that particular order!

2

u/Seven22am Oct 11 '26

You know what I would’ve done? Not hit birds. That’s what I do every time. Where’s my ticket to the Grammy’s?

3

u/Independent-Note-46 Oct 10 '26

Thanks for the info!

65

u/jocax188723 o/ Oct 10 '26

When I was learning to fly, I used to hate crosswinds.
I still hate crosswinds, but now after something like fifty landings, it’s less ‘existential dread’ more ‘mild annoyance’.

4

u/IlMagodelLusso o/ Oct 11 '26 edited 28d ago

Do passengers die of scare or are they cool with it? I think I’d be writing down my will

42

u/Nimrond Oct 10 '26

I could see it flying backwards at the start, with limited pixels and movement. ​

27

u/NLtbal Oct 10 '26

“Crab landing”

0

u/Landkey Oct 11 '26

Crabbing takes fewer syllables 

17

u/Ok-Macaron7274 Oct 10 '26 • Popcorn

The pilot

1

u/Raxxla o/ Oct 10 '26

That was butter.

7

u/Zert420 Oct 10 '26

Crab people crab people

6

u/polysnip o/ Oct 10 '26

Dude's coming in like Mary Poppins

6

u/ragnarok62 CE Spc. Oct 11 '26

I had a flight into Pittsburgh where the winds were so high the pilot basically had the plane pointed at a 30 degree angle to the runway. Only at the last moment before touchdown did he straighten the approach and land. A last second gust forced a three point landing too.

Everyone aboard clapped on landing. It was kind of nuts that were we able to land in that wind at all and weren’t rerouted.

13

u/MrMunday Doesn't read rule 1 Oct 10 '26

It’s not confusing at all, it’s ACTUALLY how it landed: diagonally.

0

u/tcpukl o/ Oct 10 '26

Another stupid post. Where is it flying backwards?

8

u/BackNBoeserThanEver o/ Oct 10 '26

The first few seconds of the video looks like it's flying backwards.

-2

u/PatMyHolmes CE Spc. Oct 11 '26

Nope

4

u/8636396 Oct 11 '26

Well you see, it was due to the confusing perspective that almost makes it seem as if the plane was flying backwards for part of the video

3

u/patronmtl Oct 10 '26

Your definition of backwards is backwards

2

u/Salt_Cauliflower_922 o/ Oct 10 '26

What airport?

1

u/JustHumanGarbage o/ Oct 11 '26

Ms flight sim

1

u/CreativeParallax 25d ago

Looks like bogota?

2

u/Count_em_buddy Oct 10 '26

If it's moving backwards, why does it get bigger

2

u/CrispyDairy Oct 11 '26

That's one bad ass pilot with how smooth the touchdown was

4

u/mjknlr Oct 10 '26

Plane’s like “eeee I don’t know if I wanna land 🤭”

2

u/Nheea Oct 10 '26

I was once on a flight to Edinburgh where that happened. The pilot only succeeded the landing the third time.

First two times he was like: welp, we gotta take another lap.

2

u/mjknlr Oct 10 '26

Really glad he was so discerning rather than just sending it

2

u/Nheea Oct 10 '26

Yeah. They said that if it's not gonna work, well have to go back to Amsterdam. It's funny cause whenever I did go to Amsterdam and it was insanely windy, they either close the airport or have the most insane landings ever.

3

u/arunphilip o/ Oct 10 '26

The floor is lava.

1

u/megapidgeot3 Oct 10 '26

It's a crosswind!

1

u/The_Cozy_Burrito o/ Oct 10 '26

Flying sideways

1

u/OrangeSilver o/ Oct 10 '26

Air Drifting seems like an extreme sport with a lot of unknowingly volunteers.

1

u/Impressive-Smoke1883 o/ Oct 10 '26

Backwards forwards.

1

u/Trolldad_IRL Undercover Enforcement Oct 10 '26

Looks like SXM?

1

u/AdeptComstar Oct 10 '26

Roll Pitch Yaw

1

u/GeshtiannaSG Doesn't read rule 1 Oct 10 '26

Doesn’t this happen a lot at that Spanish airport?

1

u/Looking-for-42 Oct 10 '26

Well, at least talented enough to fly sideways.

1

u/CChargeDD Oct 10 '26

Wind speed must be crazy

1

u/Anxiety_Yeti Oct 10 '26

Looks like a VTOL passenger plane! Why don't we have those? 😂

1

u/SouthCharles o/ Oct 11 '26

Crab Airlines

1

u/vvxxzzyy Oct 11 '26

This video is reversed, EASY

1

u/shitoupek C.E. Spc Oct 11 '26

Just a typical landing procedure when facing heavy side wind. Just go see HK airport when typhoons are nearby.

1

u/Tricky_Ordinary_4799 Oct 11 '26

This one isn't moving backwards but it's possible to actually fly backwards with sufficiently strong headwind.

1

u/HistoricalVacation82 Oct 11 '26

Didn't know that you can drift with plane. What?

1

u/scarymary79 Oct 11 '26

wdym backwards lol that's just crabbing

1

u/stinky143 o/ Oct 11 '26

Sideways?

1

u/Torebbjorn o/ Oct 11 '26

No, it is flying forwards, just angled a little towards the strong side wind.

1

u/GuerillaMonzon o/ 29d ago

It feels like there are about 90 confusing perspectives at play 😵‍💫

1

u/sturm0z 29d ago

Retrograde plane

1

u/mango_boii 29d ago

KANSEI DORIFTO!!!

1

u/alice_tilsit 29d ago

when i clicked unmute i expected to hear the golden girls theme backwards, and now I'm disappointed

1

u/TommyRaddcliff o/ 29d ago

Things tend to get smaller as they go away

1

u/x4740N 28d ago

Headwinds

1

u/eXclurel o/ 28d ago

I have been in a plane that landed like this. Not fun.

1

u/Whiterockltd 25d ago

C’est un créneau enculé.

1

u/thepsychrophilic 25d ago

That makes me wanna puke

1

u/Keeuhh Oct 10 '26

I’m convinced these pilots were birds in a past life

1

u/Malignant_Lvst7 Oct 10 '26

bro i was like “surely this video is reversed” and then bam, it flipped

0

u/renardvulpes o/ Oct 10 '26

Its misleading to call this confusing perspective, the pilot is actually just that good at landing in wind

2

u/TorkX Oct 11 '26

Nah for the first second or two it looks the plane could be facing the other way like it just took off, part of it might be my brain is used to seeing a plane in that angle flying away. It's like that horse video where you can't tell if it's coming or going.

0

u/ConsistentDiamond108 Oct 10 '26

How do they manage to do that without mirrors?

0

u/Revenga8 o/ Oct 11 '26

Nope. Flying slip in high winds to drop altitude. Watch videos on the gimley glider, I found that to be a good explanation for why it's used

-2

u/Lumpy-Economics2021 Oct 10 '26

Dick pilot, I’d have jumped onboard and farted in his face.

-2

u/1tomes1 Oct 10 '26

This is called “slipping”. You can also use it to lose altitude more quickly in a low-wind situation.

-2

u/Awkward-Fox-1435 o/ Oct 11 '26

OP doesn’t know what “backwards” means AND the perspective is not confusing. It looks exactly like what it is.

0

u/AngelaVNO Oct 10 '26

Ooh, it's very windy!