Manual Landings

[capnbirdseye]

Hi everyone,
This may seem like a rookie question (it is! but that's why I want to ask)

How often to commercial pilots (the likes of Easyjet, Ryanair etc) perform manual landings? is it all the time? what situations dictate what sort of landing is performed?

Thank you.

[Check Airman]

99.99% of the time. Autolands are pretty rare. Usually if the visibility is less than ~1200ft

[capnbirdseye]

Thank you Check Airman, I always assumed it was auto-land all the time.


I presume that the ILS is still tuned in and auto land is armed in case anything goes wrong?

How do the pilots practice these manual landings? I would like to perfect it in Flight Sim, but don't know how without doing the really long flights first.

Thank you.

[Dash8driver1312]

Just to rock the boat, with the DH8D, fitted with Head-up Guidance System, we have no auto land capability anyway and the captains land fully manually in the worst visibility!

But seriously, manual landings are flown the same way as on any type. Check your configuration, your speed, your descent rate, and that you are pointing at the correct patch of ground...

[Doors to Automatic]

I presume that the ILS is still tuned in and auto land is armed in case anything goes wrong?

Usually the approach will be flown as it were a fully automatic landing - in other words with the autopilot flying the ILS and in control of the throttle to maintain a set speed - until about 20-30 seconds before landing when the autopilot is taken out. On some aircraft (e.g A320 series) the autopilot controls the thrust until touchdown.

[wiggy]

Autolands are pretty rare.

Agree with Check. Looking at my log book as a long hauler I reckon on the aircraft it's maybe 1 or 2 a year ( we do however train up on autolands every time we are in the simulator).

Many (?most) runways don't allow have equipment up to autoland standard, and even if they do as HD has pointed out in good weather the ILS signal may not be protected to "autoland standard".

capn,

I presume that the ILS is still tuned in and auto land is armed in case anything goes wrong?

Many runways in many parts of the world don't have an ILS. further more I can't think of many situations where you would put the automatics back in to save an approach - chances are the safest course of action would be to throw the approach away, going go-around and having another go.

How do the pilots practice these manual landings?

By doing them! By keeping in practice, by rarely if ever opting for an autoland when a manual landing was a safe and sensible option!

Remember few of us here started out by flying an airliner - most here probably cut our teeth on smaller types, learn the sort of principles that Dash described, and carried those techniques through to bigger types.

I would like to perfect it in Flight Sim

Ah well..having sent my son solo on MSFS my advice would be stick with one simple, small type, learn the power settings you need for the various configurations..and practice, practice, practice....and stay away from the long flights......

[Broomstick Flier]

99.9% of my landings are manual and I always throw away the automatics (AP/AT) around 2000ft AGL give it or take it.

Every 90 days have to perform an auto-land under simulated CAT-3 conditions to keep current, though.

[Westnest]

Not for taking back to autopilot, but making ILS tuned on NAVRAD is a known practise on non-autolands, because the needles provide a good guidance, especially when PAPI is not clear.