History of Low Vis Procedure and Autoland
 

Good morning everybody,
Anybody knows where to find the website regarding "history of low visibility procedures and autoland"? Had been searching but cound't find the right ones..

Thnks.

Try Google for....Trident, Smiths Industries, Boscome Down, Autoland, Cat3, BEA....
watp,iktch

Yep, all those should work...after all, the Brits did it FIRST.

And they should be justly proud in doing so, as everyone else trailed far behind.

For civil operations, the Trident was cleared for CAT III in 1972, the VC10 in 1973. The Victor and the Vulcan beat them both however. They were fitted with autoland on the principle that if you had an aircraft airborne with a nuclear weapon on board, you really did want to have it land safely if the weather went out of limits. It used a slightly different system where at 200', the autpilot was switched from LOC to L CABLE which was a more sensitive linear aerial which was buried in the runway and extended out to the middle marker. Only about three airfields had the L CABLE system installed (I think). Anybody out there know more about this system. All I really can confirm is tha Victors still had the switchery and the Rad Alt housing in the late 80's.

Day One of a Low Visibility procedures course used to include a very scratchy black and white film of the very first autolands being carried out in dense fog by a Vickers Varsity, (I think), at either Bedford or Cranwell, again, I think, somewhere around 1948/9.

You may find out more here: http://www.raes.org.uk/

Bedford I think.

In the days when the RAF had a readable, interesting and meaninful flight safety magazine called 'Air Clues', there was an "I learned about flying from that" article each month. I remeber the story of one pilot who had gone around from an approach at his home base and was diverting. En-route, he was passed to Bedford for a radar service and heard an aircraft in the circuit who had just rolled from an ILS and stated it's intentions to do a further.

Our hero thinks "Weather must be OK here, I'll land at Bedford" burns his boats and decides on changing his diversion to Bedford as he's very short on fuel. However, at DH - no lights! Goes around again and gets fed in for another approach while the other aircraft does another roller. Now he's very short of fuel and has to push the limits, getting the runway lights at a very low level on his next attempt. When he shuts down, the other mystery aircraft taxies past. It's a Varsity with 'Blind Landing Experimental Unit' written down the side.

:ok: Dan

The story was told by the late Neil Williams.

Radio check 123, et al I have a copy of a lecture given in 1989 - history of navigation aids for all weather landing.

Dan, the “Weather must be OK here” story was repeated in the late 70’s where the RAE 1-11 was making approaches to E. Midlands. As the airport did not appear to be very busy a passing training aircraft requested a practice approach; fine except that the 1-11 was evaluating the lack of approach lights for first contact and DH in 200m RVR.

Similarly, the Bedford HS 748 was evaluating ‘thick’ night fog at Glasgow when a preceding Trident missed the approach. The 748 landed and taxied in for refuel and coffee, only to find the terminal closed as the busses and taxis could not run in the thick fog.

Stuff on Vulcans and Leader Cable here.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...111797&page=17

Weren't some DC-8 [early ones] able to make a Cat II approach, with command being given back at 50 ft ?...I've read that some where not sure...



CAVOK:) CAVU:D :D :D
rhov:)

Parabellum

The film was made in mid/late '60's

:ok: Thanks guys. Managed to get the info looking for. Appreciate that very much.. Cheers :D

Sorry guys but the french were the first to land in actual cat IIIA in 1969 with the wonderful Caravelle on a Lyon-Paris Orly flight . The airline was Air Inter
http://www.wingfiles.com/files/appro...thcat2cat3.pdf

You are all wrong.
The first pilot to accomplish this feat was Capt. R.H.McIntosh at Croydon on Oct 20th 1921 in a Handley page 0/400

The story is too long to quote here, but he lined up the twin towers of Crystal Palace which were sticking up through the thick fog.
Then, descending at a calculated rate and speed, he arrived over the airfield and touched down in what were virtually zero/zero conditions.
It took a car 10 minutes to find him and lead him into the parking area.

This feat was highly praised in the press and earned him the nickname of All Weather Mac, which stuck with him for the rest of his distinguished career.

Of course, the feat could not be repeated now, the Crystal Palace burnt down in 1936. :)

4pon4pin
 

I do believe we are talking of different films.

Anything filmed in the mid to late sixties may well have been in colour and would probably have included the Avro748 or BAC 1-11.
Apart from that blind landing research was already well advanced by the mid to late sixties, the film I refer to was about the very first experiments and was very black and white and narrated by the same person that did Movietone News at the cinema!!! Also it was a Varsity that I remember, (viewed from below with a diamond shaped tail plane).

Thank you all for the replies. In my humble opinion this is the most interesting forum on Pprune.

DanW.I'll go along with that. The Royal Australian Air Force had Air Clues equivalent in "Spotlight." Unfortunately what was a thoroughly interesting journal has over the last 15-20 years degenerated into a flashy highly coloured graphic designers show piece with bugger all real value to the discerning aviator. The kaleidoscope of coloured text means photocopy is well nigh impossible and the flight safety value of the magazine is basically zilch.

I well remember the B&W film. If anyone wishes to try and find a copy, it may be that the secretary of the Martlesham Heath Aviation Society may be able to help? (a previous home of BLEU).