Simviation Forums

I'm doing an early morning flight from SFO to PDX(Portland), and I'm using real-world weather.  PDX is broadcasting 1/4 visibility, stratus clouds overcast 129 ft, with winds calm.  I'm like "whew! no winds, I land."  So I get myself all set up on the ILS for 28L (is the 737-400 CAT III ILS qualified?) and I can't see anything, because I'm in clouds and even below the clouds visibility is near zero.  But there's no wind, so I know I'll be on track.  Heh, think again.  Apparently what I did not know was that the ILS for 28L actually is a little bit to the right of the runway, and I landed on the taxiway.  >:( Umm, oops.  So I reload my last save and do a GPS approach instead, becasue while the ILS may be off of the runway the glideslope is still good.  I finally set down, taxi in, an get things ready for my departure to LAS in 25 mins... nope, visibility drops to 1/16 mile and I can't see the aircraft parked next to me.  Grounded for 15 minutes until visibility eases up to 3/4 mile.  That was interesting!  ::)

Well shit happens  ;)

the 734 is ILS CAT 3 certified btw, it has 2 autopilots and an independent autothrottle, so you'll be okay  :)

Good to know. I heard something somewhere (may have been here, probably was) where someone said "it has cat 3 ILS capabilities, so we can land in 1/4 mile visibility" and I just wanted to make sure I hadn't commited an illegal ILS aprroach in the first place!