A320 Autoland
 

Hi all,
I have a question regarding approach / landing capability on the A320.

as far as I understand, the alert height stands at 100ft, therefore, any failure below AH will not change the landing capability unless it’s one of the 7 reasons the autoland light is triggered.

Today however I found this in the FCOM (22-30-70) which says “below 200ft RA, CAT3 single or cat3 dual is memorised”.

why is it 200 and not 100?

I also came across this video, which shows a downgrade between 200-100.

https://youtu.be/xQVfljH0a3E?si=9XRnqsEERvNQigNe&t=76

anyone have any words of wisdom?

200 ft is the fat bus number, 200 ft is normally the “continue” point for a NO DH landing.

Sooooo why is it in the A320 FCOM? :ugh:

Am I wrong in saying it should be removed or amended to 100ft?

I've never found a proper answer to this. The implications of the FCOM is that the alert height will not result in a change in landing capability if there is a failure of the redundant part of the autoland system. Ie. CAT 3 DUAL will remain so. This actually occurs at 200ft concurrent with the autoland light arming.

However airbus have assigned this number as 100ft for the single aisle fleet.

What happens between 200 and 100ft is no mans land. Presumably nothing as youd not know anything about it. The implied purpose of alert height and it's protections have already occured 100ft earlier at 200ft.

In short, to answer your question, go around for the red autoland light.

To follow up on this. My airline got in touch with Airbus and they have confirmed that the number should be 100ft for the single aisle Airbus, and the FCOM will be amended to reflect it. Hope that helps!

Admirable effort, thanks!!!