London (LHR) | automatic landing in fog on runway 27R | Airbus A320 | the last minute |  

Thanks for watching and your feedback!

My pleasure!

It requires a very serious operation and capability, and many factors must come together to make this landing.

An automation Landing is more hard to do than manual one

Sure, we are always happy to finally see the runway. This is true for autolands but also for manual landings in marginal weather.

this ain’t zero minimums

@@jordiramirez405 what is it then?

Some militaries do zero lights landings on occasion. A pilot friend of mine says "you can't see anything so there is nothing to worry about.". He dies laughing everytime he says it.

That is correct! Required was an RVR (visibility along the runway) of 75 meters. The cloud base did not matter. But the RVR was much better than the required RVR.

I agree!

Aeronautical engineers are seriously unreal. Definitely crazy smart to where I have Inner confidence I could be a pilot as I race cars but struggle working on my own cars most of the time but working on planes.. give me 10 life times and il still be incompetent 😂

Thanks for watching and your feedback! Great to hear that you are in the IFR-training. The good thing about the Airbus is that the systems are fail operational. That means for example: If one autopilot fails, the other autopilot is able to continue. This is very different from small airplanes. I wish you all the best for your IFR-training!

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos Definitely different than the Cessna! Haha. Thank you!

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos But you would still have to go missed approach if one autopilot fails no? In a CAT III approach that is.

@@timw1401 It depends on the situation. If you fly an approach with no decision height you have to go missed if one autopilot fails. If you fly a CAT 3 approach with 50 feet decision height, you need only one autopilot.

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos oh nice didn't know that, thanks for explaining it to me :) I'm currently working on my ATPL theory credit but have been putting off studying air law haha

We have to thank especially the engineers who designed the computers we use in the airplane which allow us to do automatic landings,.

Thanks for watching and your very personal feedback! I agree, CAT III landings in real CAT III conditions are very rare. Usually, the weather is better, but the airports are offering CAT III approaches to make sure that nobody has to go around if the visibility or cloud base are decreasing. Taxiing in low visibility is sometimes very challenging. In London (LHR) it is easy because of the green lights which guide the correct way to the parking position.

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos I did a real 600 RVR unanticipated (weather not forecasted) cat III approach to 7,200’ runway at O’Hare in B767-300. Almost at bingo fuel, after holding. Approach was cool and easy. Taxi clearance to gate; 27 turns, taxiing at 5 mph. By the time we saw the various taxi signs, we were AT the sign. Turns quite difficult at the last second. Took 45 minutes to get to the gate!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching!

Perfect landing because it’s the auto pilot who land it 😂

😂 thanks autopilot, good machine... And say continue call on 100 🙄🙄 it's late 🤣

@@paulbreleau9916😂😂😂😂

Bros i think you arent really into aviation, the auto Landing is much harder to achieve than manual one, also its not like the autopilot Does everything

Airports without the appropriate equipment may close if the weather falls below the CAT1 minimums.

I suggest that you also watch the full approach video. This gives some more insights. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lQSB3SQ_2F4.html

I was watching the same 🤔👍

The left MFD is the primary flight display and the modes are displayed above on the flight mode annunciator. There are FMGCs, FACs, ELACs and SECs together with MMRs, RAs and a bunch of other computers working together. I'm an avionics technician for the A320 family and love to see how it works when pilots, technicians and the hardware are performing as well as you guys. Thanks for sharing.

The weather during the approach in the video was better than the required 75 meters RVR for the CATIIIB approach.

I dont believe you even own a 767-300 ;)

@@wouldntyouliketoknow9891 ha! You’re right, I didn’t own it. I was entrusted by TWA, to captain it🤪

​@@davidmangold1838 some big airliners are privately owned, but I guess that only a small minority of the owners could fly them. I think, Niki Lauda was one of the very few people. There were press articles that he flew them, he had the license for that - and I think, he owned the airline(s) - or did he own parts of the airline(s) together with some partners, not sure about only that point.

Thanks! 😄

Thanks you so much!

Thanks for watching and your feedback!

Thank you so much for watching and for sharing your very special personal flight experience in the fighter jet. All the best to you! Have a great day!

Thanks!

Thank you!

This clip shows you what the instruments are showing during an autoland. Usually, only the pilots are able to see this. Lots of viewers love to see this content. And even the full 4k approach video.

We train on a regular basis in the simulator for such approaches. The Airbus has redundant systems which monitor each other. Also, we observe and check if everything works well. If not, we would discontinue the approach and fly to an airport with better weather. It is not terrifying at all. It is great and proven technnology in conjunction with well trained pilots. No reason to worry about!

Thanks for the kind words! Have a great day!

Thanks!

We have to thank the Airbus engineers for building and programming the autoland system so good!

Thanks for watching and your thoughts! I see you in the cockpit in a few years!

The callout „reverse green“ by the pilot monitoring confirms that the reversers are already set to max or idle reverse. It is not an order. It is just a confirmation.

Thanks for watching and your feedback!

Good question! Fully automatic means, that the autopilot follows the instrument landing system by itself and does the flare before the touchdown and the rollout after landing. The autothrust keeps the speed and reduces the thrust to idle during the flare. The pilot has to confirm this at 10 feet with the movement of the thrust levers to idle. Brakeing was also done automatically. The pilot has to program the system. He or she also has to extend the flaps, the landing gear and to continuously monitor the performance of the system and the weather. The pilots are trained in the simulator for this approaches and know what to do, if the systems do not work as expected.

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos Wow thanks for such an informative response! It's great to learn from a professional. As for the confirmation of thrust to idle by the pilot, what would happen if they did not touch the thrust, would it continue to idle automatically? And can this fully automatic landing be done at most commercial airports or only some? I just started my flight training but hope to become an airline pilot someday

Thank you so much for watching! The Airbus is an extremely reliable airplane. We train those landings on a regular basis in the simulator and are always ready to do them in the real airplane. Thanks for subscribing! Please tell your aviation friends in India about my channel. Thanks in advance and all my best greetings to India!

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos thanks Sir. Will surely do. 😊🇮🇳❤️

@@TravelogsIndia Thank you!

Yeah, auto land would be nice but hand flying a Cat3 is fun too.

@@dmack1827 😁

It's not scary. We have a great plane with a great autopilot. During the autoland, we monitor that everything works fine. If not, we have to take over manually. Usually, this leads to a go-around.

Thanks!

I agree

Good question. This was an approach without decision height. Required was just an RVR of 75 meters. I said continue at 100 feet. This is the alert height. The call was based on the technical status of the airplane not on any visual references.

Thanks for watching!

Autolands are similar to human landings. Some are very nice and some are not that nice. The autoland in the video was very nice.

Good question. Before we start the approach, we have to calculate the landing distance and prepare the flight management system and enter all required data. During the approach, we have to monitor that the system is working as expected. Also, we have to extend the flaps, arm the spoilers and extend the landing gear. And - for sure - communicate with ATC and manage the ATC speed requests. During the flare, we have to reduce the thrust to idle. After landing, we have to open the reversers, switch off the autopilot, cancel the autobrake system, brake manually and steer the airplane from the runway.

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos thank you so much. So, in resume, the autoland only points the airplane to the runway and manage the engine power until the "retard" message. Thats it?

Good question! Yes, the autopilot performs also the flare. We have to monitor that the autopilot is doing everything right and are trained to takeover if something goes wrong.

Everything went well. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching!

I agree! It was not really bad for an automatic landing.

Das finde ich auch! Der Airbus macht das super! Und die Technik ist ja schon etliche Jahre alt und funktioniert immer noch sehr gut!

We have to configure the airplane for landing: flaps, gear .... and do the setup for the flight management and guidance system. The autopilot tracks vertically and laterally to the runway and even does the flare prior to the touchdown. We have to set the thrust to idle during the flare and into reverse after the touchdown. Braking may be done automatically and afterwards we have to switch off the autopilot and the autobrake to leave the runway manually.

Thanks for watching and your question. For autoland, the airport and the runway must fulfill lots of requirements. A lot of runways do not fulfill these requirements. In addition, the required CAT III ILS system is very expensive to buy and to maintain. Also, the wind limits are reduced for autoland and during autoland operations the airplane flow rate to and from the runway is reduced to protect the ILS signal. The crews have to have special training and the airline as well as the airplane needs to be certified for autoland operation. If you put that all together, the result is that autoland operations are only done if the weather is foggy and normal landings are not possible.

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos thank you for your detailed answer. Now, it is quite clear to me.

Vielen Dank fürs Anschauen und das Feedback! Die Sicht war zwar nicht wirklich gut allerdings deutlich besser als die 75 Meter, die wir als Minimum für diese automatische Landung benötigen.

I agree, the autopilot did a nice landing.

Thanks!

Good question. When reaching minimums, we have to do the decision to continue the approach or to do a go around. Usually everything is fine and the runway is in sight, so we can continue for a landing. If this would not be the case, we would call "go around" instead of "continue". During the approach in the video the continue call at 100 feet was based only on the technical status of the airplane because it was a CAT 3 approach without decision height.

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos Thanks for a quick response. May you have a safe flight...always.

Heathrow has a CAT III ILS system. During this approach, we flew to CAT 3 minimums: no decision height and 75 meters RVR. Most smaller airports only have CAT 1. It is very expensive to install and maintain a CAT 2 or CAT 3 ILS system.

It is always good to see the runway prior to the landing.

Thanks for the information about the book!

Sure, there is not that much to see when in the fog. No reason to be terrified because the autoflight system works great. And all the parts of the system are installed twice. If one system fails, the other takes over automatically. And we can always abort the approach and fly to somewhere else with better weather.

The use of Head Up Displays is more common in airplanes that are not able to do an autoland in foggy weather. The Airbus does that really nice by itself. So there would be no additional benefit.

Good question. It depends on the wind speed and direction. The wind limits for autoland are much lower than for manual landings. In very windy conditions, no autoland is possible.

It requires a very serious operation and capability, and many factors must come together to make this landing.

Thanks!

Thanks for watching!

It’s the autopilot landing it 😂

Zero visibility is bad. Minimum RVR, which is the visibility along the runway, is today 75 meters. If it were less, taxiing on the ground is becoming impossible. Also, if needed, emergency services would be unable to drive to and locate the airplane. If the RVR would fall below 75 meters during the short final, we would have to discontinue the approach.

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos all I know is that I was sitting in the very back of the plane facing the stewardess. He was in her jump seat, and she literally got up out of her seat and looked out my window crossing over me ha ha and we hit the runway and I never saw it.

Have a nice trip!

Thanks for the question. This was a CAT 3 approach with no decision height. This approach did not depend on any kind of visual contact prior touchdown. The required minimum RVR (visibility along the runway) for the approach was 75 meters. In the video you see that the weather was much better than the required weather.

The great thing is, that the magic usually works all the time very good if you refer to automatic landings in an Airbus A320

Yes. The tech is absolutely fantastic. That said, I believe there should be strict limits on it, due to its potential for its misuse and abuse, which can easily happen under pressure of time and economics. It should NEVER be plugged in to and run exclusively by AI, something which is certainly already in the works. A microchip has no skin in the game; a human pilot puts his a** on the line every time he or she straps into the machine. And a microchip may be able to decide faster. However, it can also decide wrongly faster, particularly in situations which are unique, for which it has not or cannot be programmed to anticipate or correctly deal with appropriately. Lastly, as multiple, recent accidents have demonstrated, over-reliance on technology can easily lead to pilot complacency and/or neglect of situational awareness. The truth remains: too err is human, but to really screw-up requires a computer.

During the approach and In this video, the FMA shows all the time CAT 3 DUAL until touchdown. There was no downgrade from CAT3 to CAT2 to CAT 1. Sure, we passed the minimums for CAT 1, CAT 2 and then landed with no decisions height. You can see the FMA downgrade from CAT 3 to CAT 1 usually during all ILS approaches without automatic landing once you switch off the autopilot and fly manually.

There's no reason to be worried. The system is very reliable. Everything is installed multiple times for redundancy reasons. Like 2 autopilots. We monitor the systems and are trained to act accordingly if something fails.

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos yes I know, I would be worried for pilots jobs

No, there are also Airplanes available with no autoland capability.

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for your support!

Thank you!

Thanks a lot!

Thanks for watching!

I agree!

Hello autopilot!

It was a CAT 3 B approach. But the weather was better than the required weather.

Correct. Cat 3 ILS with no decision height and a required RVR of 75 meters. The weather was better than the required weather.

Thanks for watching!

Sure, without an ILS, there is no automatic landing in the Airbus possible.

What do you mean with FTW?

For the win

Yes. Here is the full approach video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lQSB3SQ_2F4.html

Thanks for watching and your feedback!

Yes. CAT III approach with autoland. But the actual weather was a little better than CAT III conditions. Please watch also the full 4k multicamera video of the approach. Thanks. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lQSB3SQ_2F4.html

No, it's real.

No, that is not correct. We arrived on time. Everything went very smooth. After taxiing to the gate, everybody left the airplane to the terminal.

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos Im sure that particular flight was fine. Im referencing past experiences at this airport. Which are oddly commun to many flyers.

75 meters RVR (visibility along the runway) and no decision height.

Thanks for watching!

Why? The Autopilot can Not Taxi to the Gate.

The autopilot needs to be switched off latest when turning away from the centerline of the runway.

@@tolgacetin3906 😂😂😂😂

That sounds great! Thanks for watching!

Yes. This is a great system.

Count down is done by the radar altimeter. The numbers you hear is the elevation, measured in feet, above the ground/runway.

No decision height and required RVR (visibility along the runway) was 75 meters. Weather was better than the required weather.

There are qualified engineers required who service the autoland equipment in the airplane and the installations on the ground.

Right. The wind was turning into a light tailwind during the flare.

@@ApproachandDepartureVideos yeah wind is gusting

This was a CAT III B approach with no decision height. But weather was better than required.

This is for sure real. Weather was better than required. We need just 75 meters RVR (visibility along the runway). Cloudbase may be on the runway. Please watch the video of the full approach: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lQSB3SQ_2F4.html

No. Everything is fine. The autopilot did a great landing.

What do you mean with a.t.?

This is normal for an Airbus. Standard approach is flown with 3 degrees pitch up or so. In cruise, you also see a little pitch up. You only need pitch down for high descent rates.

Thanks!

Yes, CAT3 approach.

Approaches in dense fog are usually possible at most of the larger airports in lots of countries. It depends on the (expensive) equipment of the airport, the qualification of the crew and the certification of the airplane.

Thanks for watching!

Thanks