Last night I set up to shoot the ILS 27 approach at KMEM, in a Fedex 777F.

Now, we know that Rwy 27 at KMEM does not have a CAT III / Autoland capable ILS (right?)

I ran down the approach, captured the Localizer, then the G/S.  I fully expected to have to take over at some point, possibly at the decision height or before.  However, it seemed like the aircraft followed on down, Minimums....50, throttles begin dropping...30-20 flare...10...nice soft landing, right on the centerline, right on the TD point.   Being paranoid, I did pull back on the yoke for a flare, but I could swear the airplane did the flare, not me.  Was this me doing that flare?  Or was this a case of the airplane following the Loc/GS all the way down?  Does it flare anyway?  Was this a ground-lift-effect?  Thanks for any insight.

Rhett, the aircraft autoland feature does not require that the ground based ILS system be certified as a CATIII system.  This is up to the pilot to know such things, and you should have dialed in the minimums for ILS27 (492 ft MSL) and before reaching minimums it is up to you to disconnect the autopilot to land manually.

34 minutes ago, Mace said:

Last night I set up to shoot the ILS 27 approach at KMEM, in a Fedex 777F.

Now, we know that Rwy 27 at KMEM does not have a CAT III / Autoland capable ILS (right?)

I ran down the approach, captured the Localizer, then the G/S.  I fully expected to have to take over at some point, possibly at the decision height or before.  However, it seemed like the aircraft followed on down, Minimums....50, throttles begin dropping...30-20 flare...10...nice soft landing, right on the centerline, right on the TD point.   Being paranoid, I did pull back on the yoke for a flare, but I could swear the airplane did the flare, not me.  Was this me doing that flare?  Or was this a case of the airplane following the Loc/GS all the way down?  Does it flare anyway?  Was this a ground-lift-effect?  Thanks for any insight.

The airplane itself does not know whether the airport ILS system is CAT 1 / 2 /3A /3B /3C. This has to do with the integrity of the ILS signal and other ground related systems i.e back up power to the ILS, LVP approach and runway lightings etc.

 

as long as you have at least LAND 2 showing in either one of the PFD, you may perform an auto land in any ILS approach. 

 

In fact, an CAT 1 minimum or above auto land is quite often performed in real life. However, some airline may have an in-house approval process to those CAT 1 only runways, for example an real auto land have to been successfully performed for a number of times by check and training captain in day VMC in order to verified the autoland performance to such runway. 

 

Some runway with unusual slope may affected the ability for the airplane to conduct an autoland. For example. FAOR (Johannesburg) runway 03R, the Airbus A340 could not perform an autoland. But the Boeing’s are ok. 

 

The 777 autoland is terrific. The video below shows a cx 777-300 performing an autoland. The cross wind was 25G35kts that day. (A friend of mine was flying on this particular flight)

 

 

I think my question was, "Did I land the airplane?". - based on what you said, I must have performed that flare.

The PFD said "No Autoland", as expected.

1 hour ago, Mace said:

I think my question was, "Did I land the airplane?". - based on what you said, I must have performed that flare.

The PFD said "No Autoland", as expected.

If the PFD says NO AUTOLAND and the pitch mode did not change to FLARE, you did the flare manually. 

 

On 1/25/2018 at 3:06 AM, Driverab330 said:

The airplane itself does not know whether the airport ILS system is CAT 1 / 2 /3A /3B /3C. This has to do with the integrity of the ILS signal and other ground related systems i.e back up power to the ILS, LVP approach and runway lightings etc.

 

 

In this video, the PFD captured the glidescope during descent, but why did the glidescope disappeared at frame 1:48 

 

 

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by Billcoke

As I understand it, the B777 defaults to autoland unless told not to and once it passes a certain point in the final approach you cannot change it unless you instigate a go-around.

This is up to the pilot to know such things, and you should have dialed in the minimums for ILS27

On 8/30/2020 at 10:15 PM, kevenwild1989 said:

1v1 lolThis is up to the pilot to know such things, and you should have dialed in the minimums for ILS27slope unblocked

 

I was landing at a CAT III runway, so autoland should of worked, but the autoland indicator said no autoland.

  papa louie

This is up to the pilot to know such things

uno online

While most standard ILS approaches do not support fully automated landings, modern aircraft like the FedEx 777F often have very advanced autopilot systems capable of handling the entire approach and flare, even without full autoland systems in place.

In your case, the aircraft may have been able to perform a near-autoland due to its advanced autopilot systems. Many newer aircraft can follow the localizer and glideslope precisely down to decision height and even perform a flare if the conditions are right, though a manual intervention is typically expected at or before decision height. Stick War Legacy

The ground lift effect may have also played a role in the soft landing, but the smooth touchdown could indeed have been due to the autopilot following through with the flare. If the autopilot was disengaged just before landing, it’s possible that it was the aircraft’s autopilot system doing the flare, not you.

In short, while KMEM's runway 27 does not have a CAT III ILS, your 777F’s advanced autopilot likely handled the flare, leading to a smooth, automated landing experience.