What does your school teach re. Upslope/Downslope RWY?

[WX Man]

Rumour has it that, for the JAR ATPL exams, the 'correct' response is that when approaching an upsloping runway, the illusion is that the runway looks shorter than it actually is. Following on from this, the tendency will be (according to the rumour) that the approach will be made too high.

Logic dictates otherwise... surely if you have an idea of perspective in your mind, an upsloping runway will cause an approach to be made too low...

What does your school teach?

(we have spent a lot of time discussing this in our groundschool, and this is merely to gain a variety of opinions on this subject- or a logical explanation of why tha JAA version of this might be correct).

[Alex Whittingham]

We teach that this illusion occurs when there is no horizon. In these circumstances the brain tends to extend the runway edges to a vanishing point and assumes that's where the horizon is. We think an upsloping runway can make you feel higher than you actually are and that any downward correction will tend to make you too low with the assumed risk of landing short.

The only question I know of in the exams seems to concur with this point of view.

[Jinkster]

Agree with Alex - he after all is the instructor.

Mr Jinkster