On 10 Apr, 19:19, Jim Logajan wrote:
Todd wrote:
WARSAW (AFP) - A plane with Polish President Lech Kaczynski on board
crashed Saturday on landing at Smolensk in western Russia, foreign
ministry spokesman Piotr Pszkowski said.

According to reports the pilot disregarded controller suggestions to land
at another airfield.

I understand it was a military airfield and that the only
approach aid was radar. I forget the term - Precision
Approach Radar (PAR)? This is normal in some militaries
and works very well. The operator has two screens one for
azimuth and the other for slope. He "talks" the pilot
along the glideslope to minimums. I have no idea what
typical minimums might be.

The technology very likely pre-dates ILS and one
advantage still relevant today is that to set it up on
a new airfield all you need is a truck containing the radar
and a seat for the operator. Could probably set it up an a
very few hours. ILS needs HUGE antennae and is probably
quite an effort to calibrate too. RAF for sure used in in the
1970's. I was in the operators station of one but did not see
a landing.

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