by ashaman » Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:10 am
Volo, even today, with systems that are a lot more precise than in 1964, a complete autoland is not something devoid of anxieties.
This mainly because in real life, and again in contrast with FS or any other sim I know of, there's always the possibility that the radio signal from the ILS might be misinterpreted by the board systems, or polluted by interferences.
Phenomena this last not uncommon that has been the cause of many problems and narrowly missed disasters. I remember having read of a 767 whose pilots shooting for an ILS found themselves descending on a false glide by reckoning of the VOR/DME of the airport (don't remember which) on the other NAV radio that told them they were way too far to begin descent. They declared missed and landed using a VOR approach a little later.
They were lucky they were not trying a complete autolanding, as this requires usually both NAV radios on the same ILS frequency for reason of redundancy. Had they being trying an autoland I'd be reporting a aviation disaster here.
ILS in real life is surely a useful tool, but as it is a radio equipment, is not devoid of problems and/or quirks, even when certified for a CAT III landing. And as such to be used with the rightful cautions.
PS
Remains on my part the curiosity, once down on the runway, way back in 64 (five years before I was born), where did you go? I mean, with a near to zero visibility, how were you able to find your way to the gate? Nowadays there are electronic maps that signal the plane current position on the airport ground that help a little, but back then this was sci-fi equipment.
A follow-me car? With 50 meters visibility had to have been quite the slow taxi. Surely not a thing for a heavy traffic.
Last edited by
ashaman on Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
There's but one real cure for human stupidity. It's called DEATH.
At the moment mourning the assassination of sarcasm and irony for the good of the "higher".
Proud FSIX user. Active user of FS98, X-plane and novic