Autoland or "Top Gun"
It would be interesting to know if Air Europa is one of those companies enlightened enough to prefer their crew to Autoland ( assuming no restrictions are in force for coupled approaches on a particular ILS ) or whether , like a surprisingly high percentage of companies /regulatory authorities , they prefer the drivers to wrestle the b@stard onto the runway from a low altitude disconnect in crap vis , suffering from either glare or no depth perception depending on whether or not they used landing lights. It amazes me how many luddites in Airlines and Reg bodies still can't conceive that a properly executed and monitored autoland (assuming no restrictions to glidepath usage below minima/aircraft and crew status etc are OK) is several times safer due to increased crew monitoring capacity, coupled with less need for very precise handling and acute depth perception immediately following perhaps several hours of automatic flight. Yes I know we "have " to be able to do it, but it's safer to let Boeing play F15 than you trying to be Maverick. One would hope that some people could use some imagination and remember this incident (and TNT in EMA) when they decide whether to engage the second autopilot this winter.Try not to be the third, third time isn't always lucky. Edited to say . . Ptkay if you ain't been there you don't, with the greatest of respect, know what you are talking about. It is entirely possible , particularly somewhere like TFN, to lose visual reference AFTER decision altitude ( ask the BY 757 crew in GRO a few years ago. . although that may have been due to something rather rarer than drifting fog) Nonetheless it does happen, fairly often if you have a good sim instructor, and it is much easier in this case too if you are coupled, just push TOGA . .pray and hang on, much easier than a hand flown go- around from the flare IMHO.
Last edited by captplaystation; 29th Oct 2007 at 18:55.