autoland at bzz
Guys,
the Tristar autoland accident at bzz was a long time ago. AFAIR, it was 2 Wg Cdr test pilots who didn't know the autoland system well. There was no way it was going to autoland as the conditions for A/L weren't met by plugging in the autopilots from the visual cct. The initial bounce didn't cause the damage, it was the test pilot who tried to re-land it, pushed the controls forward, the Direct Lift Control removed lots of lift from the wing without changing the attitude and caused the second heavier bounce. The pilot then applied full thrust and flew a visual cct to land, losing 8 tonnes of fuel downwind as I recall.
Because of this, 216 were not ALLOWED to autoland, after all if a Wg Cdr test pilot couldn't do it, how could ordinary line pilots do it ? It's called system knowledge and RTFM. There were certainly some times we could have used the capability, although there were some other issues involved too.
Anyway, I can confess to some 'solid' landings manually ! As I always said, it's to make sure that the wheels spin up and that aquaplaning is minimised <g>
Best wishes to all my old mates at 216 on the TriMotor.