Hi safetypee;
Indeed: what was considered "contact" for this particular approach and what internal guidance and secondary (confirming) information was being used to verify on-slope/off-slope? The investigation will determine that. From what I know, WJ has a robust safety culture.
Retired now but our operation specified the meaning of "contact" for both VMC & IMC conditions and it was much like you describe - minor differences.
Along with the external vertical guidance, I think that good clues that can verify height vs. distance to go are also internal, from the ND, set to the lowest scale, and then using the usual 3:1 ratio, (a thousand feet out, 300ft height above the threshold or 300ft on the RA, and multiples of, etc., roughly), and descent rate vs. ground speed, (again for others looking for the "rules", a rough 3deg descent path can be determined thus: add a zero to the ground speed, divide by 2. eg. 140kts x 10 = 1400 / 2 = 700fpm).
Last edited by PJ2; 17th Mar 2017 at 02:16.
Reason: edit PAPI comments