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Old 25th May 2014, 12:00
  #37 (permalink)  
RAT 5
 
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I suggest this confusion about what is best to do stems from a coupe of things. First, though, let me throw in the red hot 'circular discussion point' whether you should follow the ILS G.S or PAPI's when visual after an ILS. IMHO it is always the ILS. I've had numerous discussion on line checks with the LTC, even TRE, who quote what they think the HOT or CP wants. My answer always is "which is the autopilot going to follow? Which is flight checked to the lower minima? Which is more stable? etc."
Moving back to the discussion about what to below 200': in the days of 3 bar VASIS they were usually sited at airports with a mix of wide & narrow body a/c. Thus a B737 type flew 2 reds 1 white and the B747's flew what they flew, possible 2 whites 1 red. Remember the length of the VASIS was quite some meters. Now, according to my local XAA flight check chappy, the airport can set the PAPI's to the worse case of their common a/c. Thus with many wide bodies and an equal mix of smaller a/c the PAPI's are likely to be set for the big boys. Thus it is quite common to fly the ILS to DA, B737, and then dribble into 3 reds. Shock horror from F/O who is on the point of screaming "Go Around." If the airport/Jeppeson would inform us about the set-up of the PAPI's i.e. the TDZ distance in, we could make a reasoned pre-approach brief about what to expect. But they don't. Why not? I do not know. Perhaps they should. They do publish THCH. It could be argued that if this is 50' then a B737 could accept 35' and thus, likely, be 3 reds. This is the only info we have published.

What do the A380 drivers see on standard PAPI's? Is it 3W 1R?
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