N600JJ
3rd Nov 2013, 07:50
Lufthansa and German Authorities seem to have put a new procedure in place for approaching FFT where aircrafts intercept the ILS signal at much shorter distances in order to avoid urban areas.
Can anyone tell me more information on this? Can this type of approach be made mandatory to all aircrafts landing at FFT or is it just for LH aircrafts? Does it put more work / pressure on pilots flying the aircraft? What is the minimal distance at which the ILS can be intercepted? Are segmented approaches in place at other locations? For which reasons?
Perhaps it is linked to their trial of using a GBAS (Ground Based Augmentation System).
Satellite-based precision approaches at Frankfurt Airport (http://http://www.atc-network.com/atc-news/satellite-based-precision-approaches-at-frankfurt-airport)
If so, I gotta say that's pretty cool. GBAS is very much a pipe dream here in Canada considering we are only just (last two years) getting into LAAS (Local Area Augmentation System) approaches. GBAS is YEARS away if my sources at Transport Canada are anything to go by.
Incidentally, there is no "minimum" distance that one can intercept an ILS from. The normal distance is typically no closer than 7 nautical miles, but this has more to do with ensuring the pilots are stabilized for landing, rather than any technical limitations of the system. Other considerations are the type of arrival (STAR, vectors), weather conditions, and traffic conditions.
Larger aircraft will, of course, intercept further out to account for turning radius and the distance they need to slow down, but I can relate that I used to routinely intercept an ILS from 2 miles from the threshold in a Dash-8 when ATC was putting us between jets (always in Visual Conditions of course). The airplane would have done it just fine on autopilot, but it was way more fun to do it by hand!