Heavy landing 777

Ron,
I watched the same. As I recall, the heavy braking test also resulted
in some wheel fires.

-Robert

"Jack" wrote in message
. net...
The 757 autolands itself smoothly as consistently as the average pilot.
It comes to a stop quickly or not, depending on the Autobrakes setting
chosen by the crew. Is the 777 so different?

Not ONE button, and one doesn't watch casually, but one isn't actually
manipulating the aerodynamic controls. One does a bit of switchology,
watches closely while the computers do their thing, stays ready to
intervene if necessary, and disconnects all of it when it is time to turn
off of the runway onto the taxiway. Or perhaps you meant you had your eyes
closed? The effect is about the same during a Cat III approach with eyes
open or shut -- except for those annoying center-line lights. And, the
tracking is just accurate enough to run one of the nosewheels over almost
every one of those lights during the roll-out.

I recall a tv program on the BBC showing from the flightdeck an American 777
performing an autoland at Heathrow.
The landing was smooth as silk and yes you could hear the sound of the nose
wheel running over the lights!

Chris

On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 at 09:29:40 in message
. com, Robert M. Gary
wrote:
Sounds like an 'autoland'. In the U.S. pilots are required to perform a
certain number of 'autolands' in order to remain current and be able to
land in conditions less than standard ILS CAT I minimums (i.e. landing
in fog). The plane is not designed to autoland itself smoothly, it is
designed to touch down within a specific spot on the runway and come to
a complete stop quickly. The software programmers were not very
interested in being smooth. BTW: In case anyone has any fantacies of
being able to land a 777 by pushing an 'autoland button', an 'auto
land' is actually much more difficult than just hand flying.

I have been in an aircraft where after landing the pilot announced that
it had been a fully automatic landing. It was a smooth as you get - I
have felt much harder manual landings.

From my, admittedly limited, knowledge I would not agree that an
automatic landing is difficult. As long as the approach is properly set
up and nothing goes wrong there is nothing to do except _perhaps_ retard
the throttles and apply reverse thrust. Aircraft with modern systems
apply and remove any crab automatically and lower one wing slightly for
cross winds. They also do quite a nice positive flare.
--
David CL Francis

On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 at 14:30:45 in message
, Darkwing
wrote:

"Jose" wrote in message
. ..
BTW: In case anyone has any fantacies of
being able to land a 777 by pushing an 'autoland button', an 'auto
land' is actually much more difficult than just hand flying.

So, how =do= you do an autoland?

Quickly:
Arm the spoilers
Set the auto brake as desired
Check the PFD shows the correct ILS frequency and ident.
Select 'approach' when flying to intercept the localiser
Check that all three ( for a 747-400) autopilots have engaged
Check that Localiser and Glide slope are armed.

Get the flaps and speed correct using autothrust.
Monitor the engagement of Localiser and Glide slope
Monitor the approach.

That's pretty much it.
[Snip]

Yes and can it be preformed on MS FS9?

Yes especially using the new PMDG 747-400 Queen of the skies. All the
actions above (and more) work. This is very comprehensive model of the
747-400.
--
David CL Francis

In article , no.spam.1E242
@nospam.demon.co.uk says...
On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 at 14:30:45 in message
, Darkwing
wrote:

"Jose" wrote in message
. ..
BTW: In case anyone has any fantacies of
being able to land a 777 by pushing an 'autoland button', an 'auto
land' is actually much more difficult than just hand flying.

So, how =do= you do an autoland?

Quickly:
Arm the spoilers
Set the auto brake as desired
Check the PFD shows the correct ILS frequency and ident.
Select 'approach' when flying to intercept the localiser
Check that all three ( for a 747-400) autopilots have engaged
Check that Localiser and Glide slope are armed.

Get the flaps and speed correct using autothrust.
Monitor the engagement of Localiser and Glide slope
Monitor the approach.

That's pretty much it.
[Snip]

David, is it true that all widebody a/c are autolanded (in gen)?

--
Duncan

On Sat, 24 Dec 2005 at 12:39:26 in message
, Dave Doe
wrote:

David, is it true that all widebody a/c are autolanded (in gen)?

I am not in a position to know that. All I can say is that I was on an
A320 flight into Gatwick where the Captain announced that the aircraft
had just completed an automatic landing.

I was also once lucky enough to be present on the flight deck of a
747-400 as it flew into Kennedy. That was definitely a manual landing! A
good one too and visibility was great.

My guess is that it is likely that pilots carry out their mandatory
occasional auto-lands but probably make manual landings more often. I
believe there are still a number of airports in use which do not have
auto-land capability. I doubt that auto-land can be set up for in
Madeira as from one direction the aircraft is not aligned with the
runway until about half a mile to the threshold. (At least that used to
be the case!)

For the up to date information we need a current Captain!
--
David CL Francis