Hi,

 

When do you use autoland for during a landing? I know that the 737 needs to autoland when the visibility is 200m, but what is the visibility is for example 400m? Would you still autoland then even though it's not at the minimums of 200m?

 

Thanks in advance

I never use it no matter the weather conditions.

 

In the simulator it's really great fun to land a 737 at 0 visibility, fully manual and raw data. Feeling of accomplishment!

That is true.

 

Altough I'm interested to know how they do in real life.

I never use it no matter the weather conditions.

 

In the simulator it's really great fun to land a 737 at 0 visibility, fully manual and raw data. Feeling of accomplishment!

That would never be done in real life though.

Ok

 

So my other question is, if you plane for an CAT III or CAT II approach and you see the runway before your minimums, would you go manual or continue the autoland?

if you plane for an CAT III or CAT II approach and you see the runway before your minimums, would you go manual or continue the autoland?

 

In general terms -- do what you briefed and planned for. You can do a manual landing off a CAT II approach but in practice transitioning to manual flight at 100R is more likely to destabilise things than anything else, especially if you're going from instruments to visual without an HUD.

 

Changing things at the last minute or on an impulse generally leads to things going wrong, and in a multi-crew environment as much as anything else you'll just be confusing your mate who thought he knew what the plan was but is now watching something different unfold.

All right, thanks for the answers!

And while we're on this topice, I thought I'd might as well ask if you need a specific clearance to fly a specific approach ex. CAT III, or if you just do whatever you like?

A clearance - not as such.

 

In short -- you would generally advise ATC at the earliest opportunity a) if you are capable of making a CAT III (or CAT II) approach if the weather requires it because ATC may prioritise those aircraft over those that do not have CAT II/III capability.

 

If you are doing a practice autoland in CAT I weather conditions, it is also worth advising ATC. This is because CAT II/III ops require certain procedures on the ground to safeguard the ILS signal which are not carried out in good weather because they reduce the flow rate. That said, chances are ATC won't do anything different anyway, so you can argue whether there's any point in telling them at all and some airlines don't bother.

 

All-weather ops are a fairly complicated subject (that's why airline crews need a special AWOPS qualification to operate to CAT II/III minima) and there's a lot more to it than the above but it gives you an idea!

Ok thank you!