Never experienced the magic of Autoland

[dogdish]

I've always landed manually, switching off the autopilot/autothrottle before touchdown.

 

I understand none of the default aircraft have the capability, but I do have a few payware planes to try...

 

Level D 767, QualityWings 757 or other?

 

Where are known working ILS airports to try that put you right down the center?

 

Oh yeah, what do you use on the autopilot, Approach? I'm assuming you have to be "established on the Localizer" as the ATC always says.

[mrzippy]

I use this on one of my freeware POSKY 737-800. autoln21.zip Even though it's for FS2004, it works perfectly in FSX for any airliner. Just be sure to kill A/P and A/T after touchdown.

[bdf369]

If you have QW757 it's very easy to autoland and it's all explained in the basic tutorial flight found in the user manual. Just fly normal ILS approach on autopilot with autothrust, intercept localizer and choose APP when glideslope become alive. Flying level and approaching glideslope drop gear and go to flaps 15, then upon G/S intercept dial in the landing ref speed +5 (from cdu init page) and set landing flaps. The autoflight annunciator will indicate LAND3 and you'll see FLARE armed on you EADI or PFD (depending on whether you use retrofit panel). Once on the ground you need to set reverse thrust and then below 80 knot steer and brake manually.

 

It's a bit more complicated with higher fidelity aircraft like PMDG where you have to set everything up for both and Captain and FO and engage multiple autopilots and autoland might disengage for various reasons.

[dogdish]

Thanks for all the detailed tips and mrzippy for the tip on the default aircraft autoland file.

 

Been flight simming for years and never tried this before :o

[Rupert]

Thanks for all the detailed tips and mrzippy for the tip on the default aircraft autoland file.

 

Been flight simming for years and never tried this before :o

 

Enjoy it, once. ;) IMHO: Autoland is about as exciting as kissing your sister. In fact I know a ton of current RW commercial pilots who own and fly small Cessnas, Pipers, etc. because that's the only time they actually get to fly! :eek::eek:

 

Michael

[dogdish]

Even though it's only a simulation, I guess I never got over my fear of, if I might quote Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park "Putting my life in the hands of engineers" ;)

[Rupert]

Even though it's only a simulation, I guess I never got over my fear of, if I might quote Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park "Putting my life in the hands of engineers" ;)

 

LMAO!!!! That's exactly the way I usually feel when flying in the cabin RW!! Especially since those guys couldn't even land a large commercial airliner VFR on the West Coast recently!! No one taught them to fly. Just to program!! THAT'S NOT A GOOD WAY TO KEEP RW PEOPLE ALIVE!!!! :eek::eek:

 

This very issue is also why a lot of RW pilots like "Sully" say RW pilots should be able to practice RW flying at least on occasion!! They don't need to know how to land a sim, or as they call it a "Trainer" even a fancy one. They need to know how to RW land what we're sitting in the RW cabin of!!!!

 

Michael

[dogdish]

I guess my fear is real:eek:

 

On February 25, 2009, a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 (Turkish Airlines Flight 1951) crashed about 1500m short of the runway at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The Dutch Safety Board published preliminary findings only one week after the crash, suggesting the autoland played a key role in the accident. According to the Flight Data Recorder, the aeroplane was on a full autoland approach at a height of 1950 ft / 595 m, the left Radio Altimeter had been misreporting a height of −8 ft. The autoland system responded accordingly and configured the plane for touchdown, idling the engines. This made the aircraft lose speed and stall. When the flight crew received stall-warnings, they were already too low and too slow to recover. As a secondary factor, the Safety Board suggested the crew did not have a visual ground reference because of foggy conditions.

 

The final investigation report was released on 6 May 2010

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoland

[Rupert]

Actually your example is of a terrible loss!!!! But I was thinking about this one which had much less loss of life but really freaked me out.

 

"6 July 2013; Asiana Airlines; 777-200ER; HL7742; flight 214; San Francisco, CA: The aircraft was on a scheduled international flight from Seoul, South Korea to San Francisco, and the rear of the aircraft struck a seawall just short of the runway while landing. The tail section broke apart, and both horizontal stabilizers and the vertical fin separated from the aircraft. Both engines and the main landing gear also separated from the aircraft. The aircraft caught fire after it came to rest, but not before all of the crew and most of the passengers were able to escape. All 16 crew members survived, but thee of the 291 passengers, all teenage girls from China, were killed.

More on the flight 214 plane crash"

 

Go to Airsafe.com for details. Basically it appears no one ever trained the pilots how to make a landing! They always just let the plane land itself!! From what I've read several Asian airlines including Indonesian Air consider this as Standard Operating Procedures!!:eek::eek:

 

And no, I'm not planning on ever flying Asiana Airlines or Indonesian Air!!!!