I have flown all the airbus family and I have never flown a non-precision approach using profile mode(this is what vnav is called on the A300/310) or the managed modes on the fbw fleets.On the 300 family you have to hand fly these type of approaches(apart from LLZ) as you use track/fpa.The A300 i used to fly had TWO RMI's one for vor and one for adf.The latter was tucked away in a dark corner of the instrument panel-an ergonomic nightmare.The fms was very basic,akin to a sinclair zx81 and the associated database was tiny.Certainly no room for arrival/instrument procedures.This incident definetly seems to be a dive and drive.Why weren't they using the LLZ?Only the gp is notammed u/s?BHX have been taking forever with their "improvements".As i said in an earlier post there are airfields(Tobago springs to mind) where you have an ndb and no dme.You have to dive and drive and this is done by A330s,B747s etc.In an ideal world you do fly a 3degree stabilised approach, but the world is not perfect and these type of approaches exist.If you can find them have a look at the non-precision approaches at some Iranian airports,they certainly do not adhere to the stabilised approach criteria.I am still interested who had the authority to impound the aircraft and which charts the crew were using and why BHX has managed to get away with this protracted work in progress for so long.
The UK AIP does not mention following a pseudo-glideslope profile and it has an OCH of 475 ft.It shows a profile that is "recommended" but not MANADATORY!
Last edited by cornwallis; 23rd Feb 2006 at 19:47.