'Autoland' function question for pilots
Join Date: Feb 2009
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Smooth landing in autoland?
Back in the day, I was a bit of a 'flight deck groupie' and, because I knew a bit about aeroplanes, I was sometimes asked if I wanted to stay for the landing. As if ..... 
Sometime in the early eighties I was on a BA flight from Moscow - B737. During my conversation with the crew, I noticed that it was plated for CATIII and asked how often they did autolands. 'Not often, but let's do one for the practice', came the answer. It was pretty claggy over Beaconsfield that night and you could see aircraft on the approach vanishing into it.
The landing was fascinating and we only came out of the clag just over the threshold. The second before before touchdown, both captain and F/O said; 'Oh sh*t!' followed closely by a mighty bang that tossed documents off a rack behind me somewhere, which I 'fielded' off the throttle console. I wondered if the nose gear leg was coming up through my 'dickie seat'.
When things got a little less busy, I asked if that sort of landing was typical. They explained that the Trident and BAC 111 did 'greasers' every time, but B737s always did that. The British aircraft were set up for long, long concrete runways and moderate European weather and thus had a very generous flare. The American 'pack horse' on the other hand, had to cope with parking lot sized, indifferent runways in 'Battle Creek Michigan' on snowy nights and a cross wind. In those circumstances, the pilot needed to plonk the mains on the black and white stripes and trip the 'weight on wheels' switches for sure.
I don't know how true that is today, but I always thought it made sense at the time.
Roger.
Sometime in the early eighties I was on a BA flight from Moscow - B737. During my conversation with the crew, I noticed that it was plated for CATIII and asked how often they did autolands. 'Not often, but let's do one for the practice', came the answer. It was pretty claggy over Beaconsfield that night and you could see aircraft on the approach vanishing into it.
The landing was fascinating and we only came out of the clag just over the threshold. The second before before touchdown, both captain and F/O said; 'Oh sh*t!' followed closely by a mighty bang that tossed documents off a rack behind me somewhere, which I 'fielded' off the throttle console. I wondered if the nose gear leg was coming up through my 'dickie seat'.
When things got a little less busy, I asked if that sort of landing was typical. They explained that the Trident and BAC 111 did 'greasers' every time, but B737s always did that. The British aircraft were set up for long, long concrete runways and moderate European weather and thus had a very generous flare. The American 'pack horse' on the other hand, had to cope with parking lot sized, indifferent runways in 'Battle Creek Michigan' on snowy nights and a cross wind. In those circumstances, the pilot needed to plonk the mains on the black and white stripes and trip the 'weight on wheels' switches for sure.
I don't know how true that is today, but I always thought it made sense at the time.
Roger.
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DENTI:
Exactly correct. One manufacturer objected to HUGS and HGS as they were another ones TM names.
Madness
and now we have "less than CAT l" and "other than CAT ll" in the latest EU ops.
What ever next!!
Roger,
They probably forgot to arm Auto-Land.
Exactly correct. One manufacturer objected to HUGS and HGS as they were another ones TM names.
Madness
and now we have "less than CAT l" and "other than CAT ll" in the latest EU ops.
What ever next!!
Roger,
They probably forgot to arm Auto-Land.
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What the 737 sometimes does is forget to switch to flare, which is something the pilot monitoring should call out but usually is just an "oh sh*t" moment. Haven't seen it on the NG though except in the simulator.
Other than that the older ones usually ended the landing at 4 to 6 feet, the NG does it pretty good and the fail operational ones do it nearly perfect every time round and usually much calmer than most manual approaches.
Other than that the older ones usually ended the landing at 4 to 6 feet, the NG does it pretty good and the fail operational ones do it nearly perfect every time round and usually much calmer than most manual approaches.
