Autoland question
I was thinking about this on my way into work this morning (maybe it was the dull grey weather...)
Last year a Singapore Airlines T7 ended up off the runway at Munich following what appeared to be a bodged autoland without the full protections in place. Basic explanations of ILS systems state that there are effectively 2 parts to the ILS array on the ground - the localiser beams, spread horizontally to line the aircraft up with the runway centreline, and the glideslope beams, spread vertically. It is implied (if not stated) that these are located are the near end of the runway you are approaching.
My question is - in the case of an autoland, what happens once you have passed over the near end of the runway? The Munich incident shows (I believe, and the fact that protections need to be in place to perform a full autoland) that the AP is still locked onto a localiser of some sort to guide it down the runway (rather than a pure heading, otherwise interference wouldn't be an issue, right?). So does the localiser at the near end have something that points down the runway as well or is there another one at the far end for an autoland capable runway? Same goes for the glideslope - my instinct would be that once the aircraft has passing over the G/S beam at the near end the AP will know the runway length and its own actual altitude AGL from the radio altimeter and can therefore calculate what it needs to do in terms of V/S from that? If so is that part of what makes an aircraft have an autoland capability above the AP just being able to follow the localiser and G/S?
Also, is it/can it be a full hands-off operation right to the point of being stationary on the runway ie does it apply reverse thrust and brakes?
Thanks