Simviation Forums

I thought something was wrong with the video .... complete blackness for the first 20 secs .... then that fuzzy glow....  then black untill the approach lights  :o

That IS pretty frightening if you ask me... almost nothing until touchdown. IMagine looking at the altitude indicator a few seconds before the first light appears.

And the passengers were none the wiser

I wonder if it was that bad in real life.  The whole "pitch black, then a red glow, then pitch black, then landing lights" thing seems to me like it's a camera having a hard time auto-focusing and stuff.  Sure it was obviously foggy, and there wasn't a real visual until the plane was practically over the lights, but still, probably not as bad as the video portrayed.

BTW, I booted up MSFS and did a circuit in a Cessna 172 in 1/8 mile vis.  It's certainly something I would NOT want to do in real life.  Heck, I was nervous just in the sim, and that's while I'm sitting at home nice and comfy in front of my computer (and fairly certain I was not going to die).  I think now that we've all seen this vid we should all go and do a low visibility ILS approach in MSFS and report back on the results.

Just did three near zero vis approaches (one at 1/4 mile vis, one at 1/16, one at 1/2) in the default King Air.

The results were:
1/4 : Crash
1/16 : Landed, but not pretty
1/2 : Landed just fine

Boy, at 1/16th you really are flying blind.  I flew that apprach on the AutoPilot and had to rotate purely by altitude: when the plane said it was close to where the altimiter said the ground was I rotated.  I might as well have been flying by brail.

Boy thats something ;D

          Must be one of the best he ailine has got

           Take my hat's off for him.

Now thats some good piloting!  :o 8-)

I thought that CAT1 hight minimum was 200 feet. He seemed to be almost on top of those lights before he saw them??

Matt

Having just done IFR landings at KPHL in the sim, I would most defiantly not want to have to land in situations like that.
Results:
1mi - crash (I forgot to disengage AP and when i finally realized it my inputs had caused the trim to move. As soon as i disengaged, I broke the wings off my poor Cessna  :-[ )
1/4 - Right down the centerline, but I floated, landed 3/4 down the runway
1/8 - Down the centerline, about 1/2 down the runway.
1/16 - Disengaged AP at the inner marker, was looking for the runway and P-factor and torque drifted me left. Got her down though, but was way left, and hit at 350 fpm, hope nobody had breakables in the luggage.

That guy has some balls to be landing in CAT1 conditions.

Yeah, Cat 1 requires 200 feet and 1/2 visibility.  Although a Cat 3, which only certain planes and pilots at certain airports can do, the autopilot lands the plane and only requires about 100 feet of visibility.  We flew down our ILS yesterday in a Baron and let the autopilot take it down to minimums, amazing to see just how low that is when you can see.  In a real ILS approach, if you hit 200 feet agl and don't see lights, you go missed.