B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 180; Flight Crew Total 14500; Flight Crew Type 2400
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Aircraft; Human Factors
Landing runway 27 IAH at 1500 ft AGL called for 25 flaps. Setting was gear down and flaps 15. FO (First Officer) inadvertently set flaps past intended position and immediately reset the flaps to 25. This caused a flap lockout. Flaps approximately 20-22. Quick discussion of flap setting; ref speed; landing distance on a dry runway. We both agreed it was safe to land with flap setting and repositioned flap handle to 15 in case of inadvertent movement; used flaps 15 ref plus 5. Unforecast thunderstorms were a threat as they were encroaching the field. After landing we were able to successfully move flaps to zero then back to 30. We did not communicate with the tower that we were less than landing flaps. We decided not to make a logbook entry since the flaps operated normally.
Factors that led to our decision to land with current flaps: Long runway with auto-brakes set to 3 and max manual braking available; no other aircraft systems problems; no flap asymmetry annunciators; flaps were adequate for safe landing (at least as good as single engine landing flaps); no alternate fuel; and storms building over the field. Numerous weather deviations inbound. North runways already had cells right overhead. Rwy 27 was clear overhead at time of approach.
B737 flight crew reported landing with less than planned flaps when the flaps locked out because of non-SOP operation.