I too remember the first CatIII landing performed in anger, the RVRs were sub 200m so it was a CatIIIb.
wawrk – there is certainly a problem with that hump as evidenced by a DVD I have of G-BYAR performing a practice CatIII on 2nd January 1997 in snowy conditions. The approach looks perfect until the autoflare over the 1st tdz marking. The aircraft then floats along the runway before the main gear makes contact on the very last tdz marking (so halfway between D1 and L1 in new money). The rollout is fine, not excessive reverse thrust and the aircraft goes round the loop.
Undoubtedly the aircraft lands long, with this in mind airlines have developed their SOPs with a margin of safety in mind (such a tailwind component or weight restrictions) to mitigate against coming a cropper at the other end.
If only the touchdown point was some 100-200m closer to the start of the current strip then it wouldn’t be a problem – the runway is as flat as a pancake there.
baps – you are correct about foggy conditions coinciding with winds that favour runway 14. That’s why getting the 14 end equipped with Cat II ILS and lighting is vital in the next phase of investment.
lordee – that is probably the only example of an Airbus doing a CatIII in anger at LBA. A Monarch A300 returning from Europe (with Leeds Utd fans – remember those days?) had to get onto their ops to ratify a CatII approach when confronted with 300m RVR. From the conversations it appeared they had to wake someone up to give the nod. Alas it was to no avail, the RVR dropped to 200m and Monarch Ops wouldn’t sanction a CatIII. Meanwhile the Transavia 737-800 on a similar charter shot the CatIII without a problem.
It would be interesting to hear from bmi bus pilots – they’ve been heavy on practice CatIIIs at LBA for a while now – will we see this work lift them from their current CatI minima? Likewise what has changed at KLMCityhopper to prevent CatIIs – they’re back at CatI.