Originally Posted by Rainboe
The AWOPS regulations say Cat 2 and Cat 3 landings MUST be automatic. Trying to manually land in those conditions is really not for having passengers behind you!
Correct, for
your aeroplane, operated by
your company, supervised by
your CAA.
My first big aeroplane was ATR, it had no autoland and yet it was approved for CAT II operation. FD manual or AP coupled.
Afterwards I moved to A320. Policy was that all low vis approaches should normally end with autoland, however under CAT II it was allowed to manually save landing if autoland warning came off after passing DH. Under CAT III, conditions, go-around for autoland red light was mandatory between DH and touchdown. If mains have touched down, it was captain's decision whether to continue manually with de-rotation and roll-out or go around and once reversers have been deployed, stopping was mandatory. I find this policy quite reasonable, but I really have no idea whether every SA Airbus operator uses it or it was just us.
And just today, I've landed manually in CAT IIIA conditions, with official RVR being 200m. I had merely 58 pax and 2 stw behind me and yet I was both safe and legal. I've spotted TDZ lights at 70', so I had 20 ft to spare.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce the new (to some) CAT IIIA approved gizmo: the
HGS.