What is he doing

Originally posted by wannabe pilot
He could have possibly just exited the runway on a high-speed exit. I’m not sure if your supposed to still be using reverse thrust once you’re on the taxiway, but I see Ryanair do it all the time at STN.

I think you’re right, he’s probably exiting at a high-speed exit off the runway. I would say that because the ground spoilers are still in the up position which would indicate a high wheel speed. Once, his wheel speed drops below a set number, the spoilers would stow back down.

As for the reversers, even though an airplane has left the runway some crews will leave the buckets deployed without running up the engines for additional braking. Using the reversers has 2-steps; first you deploy them, second you add thrust. So leaving the engine the process is reversed; you reduce the engine thrust to idle, then you stow the buckets. Depending on the crews preference, some will leave the engines at idle but leave the buckets out.

Airlines don’t recommend using thrust reversers at lower speeds because it increases the chances of FOD injestion. The exhaust gases are striking the ground, stirring up what ever junk is laying on the ground. With the engines spooled up with the reversers open that “junk” is more likely to be sucked into the engine. The risk for that is minimal when just the buckets are out and the engine is at idle.

On some biz jets you might see them at times taxi with one of the thrust reversers deployed. They do this to help with brake temps when they are at a low weight. If you are light enough, even idle thrust can get you moving which requires more brake use which in turn raises the brake temperature. To help with that, they’ll taxi with one reverser deployed for the drag and to lower the thrust vector.

Very interesting. But Why is the CFM 56 on the 737 with a “slide backwards” reverse, same as the IAE V2500? The a320 is also powered by cfm 56, another version tough.
There is also the other system we see on the MD80. I think this is very simple: something slides behind the exhaust, the exhaust has no place to go than up and down and slightly to the front. See this picture for this system. http://www.airliners.net/open.file/341707/M/
In the above mentioned case, it is likely that the pilot was having trouble to brake hard enough to turn on the taxiway. He just made it to turn in the taxiway at a good speed, but the had been using the reverse untill he turned in the taxiway.
The pilot didn’t apply any thrust yet for taxi, because automatic spoilers retract when thrust is applied.

Well I mainly notice it on the -200’s, with the ‘bucket’ reverse thrusters. As they travel down the high-speed, the buckets usually close after they’ve exited the runway. I don’t think they’re actually using reverse thrust ont he taxiway, it is just the delay for the buckets to close.

He could have possibly just exited the runway on a high-speed exit. I’m not sure if your supposed to still be using reverse thrust once you’re on the taxiway, but I see Ryanair do it all the time at STN.

Could he be using it to push him back?

that plane looks real old