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Old 1st November 2009 | 08:03
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Rainboe
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Disgusted of Tunbridge
 
Joined: Jan 2005
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From: Hampshire, UK
Congratulations of reaching a milestone of the AN148 development! It's good to see some fine aeroplanes coming for the future.

Microburst2002's reply has a lot of impact. In true Cat3a conditions, having taken over manually and completing a touchdown, possibly in a 15kt crosswind, can you see enough lights to safely control the aircraft manually? It is a difficult call, but my thinking is anything that restricts capability at that stage of an AWOPs approach is an indication something is wrong with the aircraft, and that is not the time to be at a height of 15 metres in 200 metres visibility suddenly trying to fly the aeroplane! My feeling is 'go-around', but we have to remember in the real world, we have limited fuel available to us, the traffic congestion and reduced flow rate will make us reluctant to go around, and we would probably all grab the chance to get it on the ground!

Our official 737 AWOPs procedures are: for an autopilot disconnect below DH, even if visual- go around. How much diagnosis at that stage can you carry out, in an instant? You are likely to hit the ground and bounce anyway, so all attention should be on flying, not technical things apart from monitoring correct operation of Flare mode and Throttle retard.
There have been trainees who "forgot" to flare and the landing gear can take the resultant rate of descent comfortably.
Disagree! 'Forget to flare' and you are looking at a 700+fpm ROD. It doesn't take much more than that to put the gear up through the wing! Have we forgotten the MacDonnell Douglas DC9 test pilot video of the rear fuselage breaking off on a hard touchdown? Make no flare at all and you may well have a problem!
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