PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Near miss with 5 airliners waiting for T/O on taxiway "C" in SFO!
Old 16th Aug 2017, 20:52
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Obese
 
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On pages 78-79 of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada final report on Air Canada 624 (A320, Halifax, March 2015 - just Google Air Canada 624 report) it is indicated that ACA's remaining non-GPS A320's were to receive retrofitting. What bitter irony if C-FKCK (ACA759) was on the list, but hadn't made it into the hangar yet.


There have been intelligent, insightful comments re the inflexibility of the EFIS on the older A320's, especially if non-GPS, but here's a can of worms I haven't seen opened yet . . .


You are in an IFR aircraft, on an active IFR flight plan, inbound to SFO 28R, in VMC, cleared for the FMS Bridge, essentially an enhanced visual approach. If I remember correctly from my "Talk and Gawk" days, you had to have reasonable expectation of remaining visual to get approved for a visual approach, but you still had the option of "re-transitioning" back into IFR at any time, provided you didn't CANCEL IFR. Also, if I remember correctly, the controller still had to provide IFR separation for you, and also still had to protect the IFR missed approach area.


Now, I admit that, in the real world, if you were maintaining VFR in VMC, and a go-around became necessary for whatever reason, normally, you would be cleared for, and would execute, a VFR go-around, as ACA759 did. HOWEVER, in the given scenario, I submit that that would not have been your only option, again provided you had not cancelled IFR.


In the unlikely event that some unusual factor arose, such as fast-moving scud rolling in, migratory birds at circuit altitude, wind shear conditions, wake turbulence hazard, traffic, whatever, you would still be entitled to request clearance for an IFR missed approach, into the still-protected IFR missed approach airspace, despite your previous clearance for the FMS Bridge.


Sooo . . . (and I hope you're still awake, reading this) even if you are in a non-GPS beater A320, wouldn't you want your seat mate to be primed for, and/or tuned in for, immediate transition to IFR in case the IFR missed approach became necessary? If you were already prudently set up for that, would it involve all that much button pushing to quickly peek at ILS or VOR/DME data as a cross check while still on the FMS Bridge? Methinks not.
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