CAT 111 Autolands...

[clayton4115 56]

hi alli fly the 737 all the time, however when landing i always on autopilot all the way down to touchdown, like 100% how many of you do the same, or do you prefer to handfly her down to landings?

[Orlaam 306]

CATIII, as in, can't see s***? Honestly haven't had a CATIII, let alone A or B, for a long time. I think I would let AP fly it as required by most ops, but again, it just depends on my mood. For CATI or better, I always try to hand fly, including no A/T. I'm not always as good as I'd like to be, but to land 100% AP, or to let it do the work to 200 above TDZ, that's just boring. I guess my general rule is - runway in sight...disconnect AP and fly it!

[clayton4115 56]

i cant fly it, i cant even do visuals :-(

[SwervR1 1]

Hi Clayton,I used to be the same, but by persevering I mastered the manual landings.A few important things to remember... leave the auto throttle engaged to control your speed, use the VASI's on the runway to guide your 3 degree approach and be as smooth as you can.I now land about 50/50 manual to auto landing.Hope it goes well.

[clayton4115 56]

hi you mention to leave the A/T on, fair enough, but if its set at 180kts and your coming in you have to slow the plane down and set the flaps at the same time, plus control with the jstick i dont have so many hands for that.

[Guest jase439]

I think you're trying to do too much all at once and getting overwhelmed. Set yourself up on a long approach 15 miles or so. Get the autopilot configured and get the aircraft tracking the localizer so you can free your hands from the stick while you configure the aircraft for approach. Then you just sort of make your rounds between airspeed, flaps, gear, landing lights, etc until you're inside the outer marker and flying at your approach speed. The autopilot is your friend while you go through your checklist.Once the aircraft is in a "dirty" configuration and you've reached your decision height, disengage the autopilot (and/or the auto-throttles) and take control of the stick (and/or throttles) and fly her down by hand. You don't need to be manually handling the stick and the throttles and simultaneously flipping between all the panels. The autopilot is your friend (and co-pilot). There's a reason these birds have 2 pilots ;-)Once you become more comfortable with the approach sequence, you can try hand flying it all the way down the localizer if you want for fun. It helps to program the buttons on your joy stick to control your flaps, gear, landing lights, so you don't have to pull your hands away from the stick.J

[Orlaam 306]

It really made a big difference for me to have a CH Yoke. The joystick with these planes was a royal PITA. Try to set up the plane for final early. Landing lights, speedbrakes, and autobrakes all set at 10,000. Then also, try to step down like most planes in the real world do it. This way you can slow down each time you step down. Also, remember lowering your gear will slow you down a lot. So intercept the localizer at flaps 10 or even 15 if that helps. Then as soon as the GS gets around 1 1/2 dots below, select flaps 30/40 and set you approach speed.I find it helps to hand fly earlier in the approach, as in prior to turning onto the localizer, simply because it gives me time to gain control of the plane. It you wait and try to hand fly when your only a couple DME out, then it gives you no room for error and the GS or localizer gets away from you.According to a guide I have, when flying the ILS approach, you would have the following set configuration:Downwind: Flaps 1Turning base: Flaps 5Base leg: Flaps 101 1/2 dots below GS: Flaps 15 - Gear DownGS capture: Flaps 30/40 - App SpeedAll the while slowing to the appropriate speeds. Or this method:7nm from FAF (Final Approach Fix): Flaps 15nm from FAF: Flaps 54nm from FAF: Flaps 15 - Gear Down2nm from FAF: Flaps 30/40 - App SpeedThe FAF maybe about 5nm - 6nm from the runway depending on the airport. This means getting into full landing configuration at about 7 or 8 nm from the TDZ (Touchdown Zone) is fine.

[Guest tomahawk_pa38]

Can someone confirm the right altitude to select when approaching a FAF for a Cat III autoland please ? I usually select the height shown on the ILS chart for the airport concerned and then make sure it ties up with the same point on the FMC, but just once in a while the a/p doesn't capture the g/s properly or sometimes it will capture it then disconnect.

[Guest vliegnet]

hi,what's the default key for autolanding???Thomas

[Guest tomahawk_pa38]

Thomas,sorry - don't understand the question ?

[Guest Knikolaes]

I say fly the concorde and hand fly a cat IV landing after sitting for 4 hours staring at the panel crossing the atlantic.Just kidding . . . . no such thing as CAT IV (I think LOL)Even though I did hand fly the entire PSS Concorde approach to JFK once . . . . not CAT III, but still . . . . I think I was lucky though.Doubt I could do it again. Havent even touched my PSS fleet in months except the A319 runs for Frontier out of Denver.Hey if you all want some VERY VERY VERY easy practice hand landing the 737, try KLXV **smiles** I use that airport all the time to practice visuals :-) And the surrounding scenery is VERY beautiful if you have FSGenesis Rockies installed.As for the CAT III's, I fear I would firt go to my alt airport. I never did trust the autopilot THAT much. Sure I'll trust the AP to hold an altitude and heading, maybe even an LNAV course, but landing the plane should be strictly the pilot's job, not a computer.

[kmanning 12]

Dave,This varies with different airports. What's the name of the airport you're referring to? This is usually indicated on the chart. Let me know the name of the airport and runway you're referring to. I'll look it up and see if I can find it. Ken.

[kmanning 12]

Thomas,I'm not sure what you mean by the default key but there are no keys for autolanding the aircraft. Not every airport has an autoland system and these are airports equipped with an ILS that has a catagory III system. When flying into airports with catagory III landing systems, the Nav 1 and 2 radios must be on the correct frequency and the auto-pilot B command engaged as well as the A command. Ken.