Praise..
Using the Position page as suggested is of little use as its assumes a straight line to the threshold. The very same FMS is displaying distance to go via the curved path so why not use that. So a distance to height cross check is used or at least can and should be used on this approach as with any other. But hey I've only ever flown it once..
Spoken like a true airbus pilot, “it’s in the FMS..so let’s use and rely on that”
The point is, DESPITE these wonderful procedures and sophisticated and cleverly designed approaches...the jet was descended to an altitude that bore no semblance to even a cursory check of height and distance.
How can that happen?
Part of understanding that event is to break down an approach into its component parts, and too also understand that we do as humans make mistakes, most of which can be recovered from with early enough intervention if the mistake is recognised. Part of that recognition is based when I’m operating on multiple sources.
As far as the fix page is concerned....Praise, clearly you’ve missed the point, landing on 13L I know it’s approximately 3.5 track miles from DYHML, so 3miles in the fix page threshold 13L is about right at 1000’.
It’s a gross error check to be certain that I’m in the right place for the visual segment.
Relying primarily on the FMS guidance in a visual environment is foolhardy in my view, it’s merely one source of useful but ultimately limited information.
Apologies Praise if it sounds like I’m having a go at you, I’m not, but its important to understand that the reason these procedures are created is that the egg heads and administrators believe they are safer, they believe this because most of them couldn’t fly themselves out of a wet paper bag, so when it goes wrong ordinary line pilots who have been trained this way don’t have the resilience and experience to recognise and correct an issue.
The G650 I fly around in these days is light years ahead of the 777 before, and the 380, and yet Gulfstream in their initial course and recurrent training emphasise basic mode operations in both autoflight and manual flight as they understand unlike it seems Airbus and EK that a skill set and resilience only happens and is maintained with fundamentals and basic skills.