by N4733D » Mon Feb 16, 2004 6:35 pm
Well everyone knows I gotta give my input. Before 9/11, when nice pilots could let you sit in the cockpit, I had the chance to view a landing in Cat II conditions from a 757 cockpit flying into Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. They are set up on the approach 20 miles out, with all the correct settings inputed into the radio and the autopilot. The airplane would follow their course, with the FMC (flight management computer) determining the proper descent rate to get to the airport for the current speed (don't you wish F$ could do that?). Once the ILS inbound course was intercepted, the Autopilot would lightly correct so that everything was set, instructing the airplane to give a little rudder here, little pitch there, as we glided down the glidescope. After getting final clearence from the tower, and a scary weather report, we continued to float down the Glidescope. The autopilot never allowed the plane to veer from it's assigned course, even with the moderate turbulence (and moderate in a 757 is hell on a smaller airplane) we were experiencing. At 500 feet AGL, the captain puts his hand on the TO/GA button incase the aircraft is forced to go around. At 200 feet, the 757 autopilot increases thrust for about a second, then cuts the engines to idle, and glides it in, amazingly touching down right at 130 knots, right on the centerline, and light enough that you would barely notice we hit. The A/P then continues the rolling by applying reverse thrust, light braking, extending the spoilers, then switching itself off. All in all, one of the best modern systems we know of, a 300,000 pound airplane that can land itself like a feather.
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