AUTOLAND IN UK AIRLINE USE
In the 80s I was on a B757 ground school course with a certain charter airline and the Course Director, an active 757 pilot, told us about his experiences with the recently-introduced Cat3c Autoland system. When the first company aircraft was fitted out naturally the crews wanted to have a practice with it as soon as possible. The only available installation in UK then was at Gatwick, and they were told in no uncertain terms by the airport authorities that no ‘practising’ was allowed –it was only available for use in actual Cat3c weather conditions, i.e zero cloudbase and just enough visibility to taxy.
The reason for this was that when the system was in use the whole of the approach end of the runway in use was sterilised with no ground movement permitted as stray vehicles or aircraft might interfere with the operation of the ILS beams. This caused massive disruption to airport operation, hence the restriction.
The first company aircraft to carry out an Autoland therefore approached Gatwick in RED conditions with some 150 unsuspecting passengers down the back. In the US the 757 was certificated by the FAA to land in zero/zero with the system but in UK the CAA - in their wisdom - had insisted on a DA of 50ft RAlt.
IIRC The drill was that the handling pilot - the Captain - ‘guarded’ the yoke throughout the approach and landing, ready to take over in event of a malfunction or press the ‘Go Around’ button on the throttles should the landing be aborted, (which manoeuvre would be carried out entirely on autopilot). The Co-Jo’s job was to call out the RAlt readings down to DA and when they turned to RED - i.e at DA - he would call “DECIDE!” This was the agreed company procedure, which had been practised many times in the Sim.
With a precious cargo down the back tension ran high as DA was approached. The RAlt reading went RED, the Co-Jo called “DECIDE!”, the captain said “Say again?” and they hit the runway smoothly without further drama, still on autopilot, the captain having seen nothing of the runway lights outside the cockpit.
I was not to experience Cat 3c or any other kind of landing in the 757 because I realised I was making a big mistake in leaving an exciting Fast Jet job in the RAF. Before I got to fly the 757 I handed in my cards and went back to my old job on the Tornado GR1.