Originally Posted by
Fokkerwokker
>>However, the aircraft was allowed to fly hands off to impact, on a CAT1 only ILS! <<
I was a F/O on the first Tristar course with Goofair in the mid-70s.
ISTR it was standard practice, at the time, for us to use Cat 1 ILS runways on our network to work up the number of Autolands prior to being granted Cat 2 then ultimately Cat 3 status. I think we merely transmitted the request to ATC that we would like to perform an A/L although I don’t recollect what particular protections were put in place for our arrival.
A/Ls were a non event as far as my feeble memory recalls!
We certainly didn’t encounter any ‘Brize-type’ events!
Perhaps Basil would care to comment?
FW
FW, do you mind if I comment?
The ILS installation should be compliant with the requirements for Autoland to be used for the landing. Things like centreline alignment are obvious problems for A/L. However, the A/L mode could be used for an ILS approach and manual landing and that is the method that was regularly used by the RAF for CAT1 approaches. Yes, A/L is straightforward if you capture it correctly and there are no failures. The complexity lies more in being trained to monitor A/L modes and annunciations and for actions in case of system failures.
AFAIK in the BZN accident, the APFDS and annunciations were not found to have had any failures.
Cheers
OAP