Studi - I think you are over emphasising the 'risk' element, crews, (including SIA crews), are trained to cope with last minute changes to the autoland status and are expected to cope with them, this is where correct monitoring is vital, particularly at and after the handover point when the handling pilot goes visual, (20' minima Cat III in a B747, so around 100' the HP should be looking out, NHP looking in). This is a procedure that requires continual practice, not just in the Sim, it is going on all the time and as lederhosen says, there are extremely few reported incidents or accidents.

BOAC - well asked - the most simplest of questions that, possibly, only one person can answer.

CJ - for all his piss and wind does have a valid point in his last two paragraphs of his latest post!

Question for the 777 guys:

Where is this GA button and how do you initiate the GA? It appears to me that a go around is the simplest thing to do: Kick the throttles to max. At least that's what you do in an Airbus. Seems to me that the so much preferred moving throttes do have some quirks involved. Even if you are on the ground you might have to be able to initiate a go around. It is after starting deceleration devices (brakes, autobrakes, reversers) you should not attempt it anymore.

Thanks for the answer.

White Knight

You say none of your colleagues have ended up in the grass as yet. That is as maybe but your colleagues on the A340 at least seem to have an attraction to R/W approach lights as in JNB and MEL instead:sad:

not a pilot, and can't begin to understand the technicalities of Autoland, but Munich is my home airport, and I can't help wondering (or worrying?) more about the gap between departing and arriving aircraft. From the report, this seems to have been a factor in this incident. Was also intrigued by the description of the Munich tower by a previous poster, on being "professional but sporty" on separation.

I have witnessed it myself, watching approaching aircraft, pretty close to the perimeter, while another is still taking off. Have always thought "these guys obviously know what they're doing". Not so sure now.

Not me sunshine (well, not yet at least, ahem....Aren't you glad you've retired:cool:)

Anyway - the discussion is about falling off the tarmac on an unprotected Cat III.................

vested interest
 

vested interest - You can sleep safe tonight and every other night. Viewed from the side it would be hard to distinguish between departures from the RIGHT and LEFT runways as well as arrivals on either, unless you are in between! In which case they are a long way apart, as in Charles De Gaul etc.

In any major airport using parallel runways, the picture can be confusing to the most seasoned professional not involved in ATC at the time. ATC are a highly professional crowd who have no intention of risking your life and their job. If you have any faith in statistics take a look, accidents in which ATC played a significant part very few, pilots planning to be involved in an accident, somewhere between 0 and 0+, a very little.
Enjoy your flights, it is the safest form of transport on Earth!

Help me.pls
 

When doing Cat II aprch,do I need confirmation wz ATC about LVO procedure in force?Tks.

For sure you do; otherwise you might wake up dead!

Incidentally, I am re-reading a book from my library called "Angel Visits" by Gp Capt Frank Griffths who was very involved with the development of autoland during WWII.

The huge problem then was how to get hundreds of bombers into their home airfields quickly when they came back from Germany damaged and their base was covered in fog.

When the USAAF came to "England" they were appalled by our lousy weather and lots of them considered that this was a bigger problem than flying over Germany.

Sperry invented the ILS system as we know it now. It was brought to UK as the "Signal Corps System 51" in early 1944. The team leader was Lt Col Francis Moseley who had been the development engineer for Sperry. He had an idea that combining an auto pilot with ILS signals could result in automatic landings.

The Americans didn't want to know but we did. So it was that he came to the RRE at RAF Defford which was a happy mixture of aircrew and boffins with great ideas. I quote:

"After he had been at Defford about a week demonstrating in our usual atrocious winter weather how the American ILS system worked he asked if he could wire up his breadboard (a plank of wood with all of the boffin's circuits wired up) to the autopilot and ILS instrument in our Liberator (4-engined bomber) to see whether the autopilot would bring the aircraft down the beam to the runway automatically".

Moseley had made up a coupling circuit on his breadboard in the cellar of his house inOsborne, Ohio with just four wires hanging from it; two to the autopilot and two to the instrument (what we would call a zero reader).

To cut a long story short, it all worked beautifully in the Liberator. The captain tripped the autopilot at the last possible second to complete the landing.

The date was February, 1944.

What exactly have we learned since?

vested interest - You can sleep safe tonight and every other night. Viewed from the side it would be hard to distinguish between departures from the RIGHT and LEFT runways as well as arrivals on either, unless you are in between! In which case they are a long way apart, as in Charles De Gaul etc.


thanks parabellum, but I'm talking about standing at the perimeter fence at the end of one runway, watching aircraft land and take off on the same runway.

And I'm sure ATC are an extremely professional bunch, was just intrigued by the "sporty" remark on separation.

Another late final report - this one from BFU issued seven years after the incident?: https://www.bfu-web.de/EN/Publicatio...B777_Munic.pdf

Aviation Herald perhaps reminds us more succinctly what this one was about: Incident: Singapore B773 at Munich on Nov 3rd 2011, runway excursion

It is a good idea to let ATC know if you plan to do an autoland. The Munich controller stated that he would not have cleared the other aircraft for takeoff if this had been done. Aside from that, always keep you thumb/finger close to the disconnect switch for near immediate removal of the the autopilot, if required.

Chilling similarities to the EK situation in DXB. Also the TOGA button not working after touchdown...