Originally Posted by
CoolHandleLuke
Is there then a difference between airport facilities for CATII and CATIII?
I mean is the only difference between II and III aircraft equipment and training etc.?
Or is there also different criteria concerning ILS sensitive areas, ground equipment and so on?
Luke,
AFAIK there are differences between CAT II & III ILS as well. CAT III requires near field monitoring of the ILS plus back-up Transmitters & generators. Beleive the lighting & hold points etc are the same - you need to check the ICAO Aerodrome requirements for the details. As mentioned elsewhere, the operator only gets certified to CAT IIIa for certain approaches which is a synthesis of aircraft & ground equipment, crew training & experience etc etc. It is quite possible to have an aircraft fully equipped for CAT III (or CAT II for that matter) but not be able to use it to those minima.
Surprizingly ILS beam accuracy is the least of your concerns, I took part in an evaluation for the JAA (as a back-seater) that looked at doing HGS CAT IIIa approaches for training on CAT I beams & there wasn't any difference - the box rejected the same inaccurate flying as it would have on a CAT III beam.