CAT C Airfields Europe, EU OPS 1.975

[SimJock]

In EU-OPS 1.975, it says that an AOC holder must have in their Operations Manual a method of categorising airfields to either A, B or C and a list of destination airfields along with their categories. I understand the categories with C being the most difficult/abnormal and of interest to me.

What actual methods are used to categorise then, is there some EU guidance somewhere ?

I would like to find out which airfields in Europe (initially) are CAT C and for what specific reasons they gain that category. Is this information only available in the CAT C briefs ?

Is it possible that an airfield will be CAT C for one Operator but CAT B for another if one operates bigger aircraft say than the other ?

Thanks for any help !

[Denti]

It is even possible that one operator deems one airfield cat c while another categorizes it as cat b and both operate the same equipment.

[Tmbstory]

Category C Airfields

SimJock::

These are airfields presenting difficult approach patterns, peculiar weather conditions or requiring special knowledge of terrain, airfield or terminal area procedures.

Operation into a Category "C" airfield requires a flight into and out of the airfield supervised by a qualified Captain.

Tmb

[BOAC]

Operation into a Category "C" airfield requires a flight into and out of the airfield supervised by a qualified Captain.

- we've had this before. It does not necessarily need that - it depends on the company. In some cases a Sim detail is sufficient.

[Denti]

And sometimes even self briefing is sufficient...

[Tmbstory]

Category C Airfields

In addition:
In the event of the airfield being categorised as category "C" and there being no Company pilot authorised to operate to that airfield then the flight will be operated by the Chief Pilot or a Commander designated by that person and possessing the necessary experience and ability to operate to that airfield, it being the responsibilty of the Chief Pilot to ensure that such training as is considered necessary is carried out by means of briefing, films or simulated training to ensure the safety of the flight.

Tmb

[BitMoreRightRudder]

Innsbruck and Funchal (Madeira) are examples of Category C airfields in Europe, both mainly to do with proximity of high terrain and the associated a/c handling and performance issues, amongst other things.

In my airline even the F/Os' are required to have completed simulator training prior to operating to Innsbruck. Spectacular on a good weather day, not so much on a bad day!

[SimJock]

Hmm.. thanks for the replies.

It is even possible that one operator deems one airfield cat c while another categorizes it as cat b and both operate the same equipment.

I don't get how that could happen, what would be the deciding factor, frequency of operation into the airfield ?

I'm looking for the planning process here, say your airline picks a new destination to fly to, OK, if it says in the AIP entry for that airfield that special aircrew training/state approval is required, (for whatever reason) then I guess CAT C is a given. But if it doesn't, does the Chief Pilot just take a look at the approaches and say 'hmm that looks a bit tricky' and classify it accordingly or do other Ops people have a guide on how to classify.

I am aware that the following are deemed CAT C in Europe by some operators, are there any others for say a B737 or A320 operator ?

LFLB
LOWI
LOWS
LPMA

Would a narrow width runway be a CAT C or B, or neither ?

Cheers All

[G-DAVE]

EGLC and LSGS are both Cat C airfliels.

[G-DAVE]

Oh, and Samedan

[Pilot Pete]

For us and on our European shorthaul routes the following are Cat C;

LFKJ
LFKC
LFLB
LOWI
LPMA
LOWS (only for the 737, not 75/76 or A320)
LGSM
LGSK

Narrow runways for us are usually B or B(R)

PP

[cortilla]

some airlines will put specific restrictions on particular airfields and make them very restrictive on which pilots can fly into those airfields.

However the national authorities deem what the min requirements are for each airfield and it's up to the operator to adhere to these min requirements or be more restrictive.

For example i'm not chambery qualified (and to be honest i don't want to be the place scares the living bejazus out of me) but my airline does go there and so i had a look at the aerad plate for the place and the plate specifically requires sim training to be allowed to go there. Both captains and f/o's do this training. Funchal is another place but that is captains only landings and so only captains have to do the training.

I'm also lead to believe that addis ababa is a cat C airfield and so was kai tak.

I have a friend who works for the 'world's favourite airline' and he goes to salzburg on a regular basis and i'm not sure if he's done sim training for the place but he has told me it's an airline requirement to have someone on the jumpseat for those flights as an extra pair of eyes.

What i'm pushing at is that the national authorities will make a minimum requirement and it's up to each airline to meet those requirements or be more restrictive.

To be honest i don't really want to go to cat C airfields. i asked one of me chambery qualified mates what he had to do to go there his reply was was 'aim at the hospital and hang a right. if that doesn't work go to lyon.' Thanks but no thanks.

[SimJock]

Hey thanks guys, really useful stuff.

'aim at the hospital and hang a right.

That sounds awful doesn't it, but its true, and not much different from Innsbruck where you 'aim at the church and hang a right' or even Madeira where you 'aim at the banana packing factory and hang a right'

It used to be the case for UK airlines, that when a simulator session is required for CAT C clearance, a UK CAA Inspector had to ride one of the sim sessions and 'approve' that the visual model was OK for the CAT C clearance work. I understand from the CAA website however, that this requirement has been dispensed with under EU-OPS, providing AOC holders have their own arrangements in place. Of course, you can still buy a CAA inspector for the day if you wish but I would expect that Chief Pilots take on this role now ?

User Approval | Airworthiness and Operational Training | Safety Regulation

My personal interest is in these visual airport models. They can change quite frequently, as can entire visual systems on simulators. These changes could inadvertantly affect their usefullness as CAT C approval models so we need to know which ones the airlines are using for this purpose. It is in the Airlines interest, to notify their simulator operators if they have received CAT C approval on particular sims and airports so that future changes to the models, are firstly notified back to the users, made available for review and don't impact on the approval. I don't see much of this happening at the moment

Oh.. so how can Addis Ababa be a CAT C, OK its a bit hilly to the North.. or is it an Altitude/Elevation thing ? I suppose 7600ft elevation might require a different take off technique