SWA CAT III Question

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12-27-2008, 03:19 PM

#11

Jack Bauer

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Quote:

Originally Posted by KLM pilot

Hi cgtpilot, I'm confused. I take it jb means jet blue, which flies airbus and E190. Both airplanes (I thought) are cat III certified anyways. What's the advantage of HUD v. the inherent capacity of the airplane. I thought a HUD is a customer prefered option. Why get it if the a/c is already capable of cat III?

Thanks

The reason given to me at Delta is to give another option with low vis for Cat III if the A/P or Autoland is OTS.

12-27-2008, 03:28 PM

#12

CRJDriver

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Another question for the SW folks. What is the max tailwind on landing for the 737. I was surprised to see a WN 737 land in PHL the other day on Runway 35 (about 5400 feet) with a 10kt. tailwind.

12-27-2008, 04:48 PM

#13

cgtpilot

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Quote:

Originally Posted by KLM pilot

Yes JetBlue. You are correct that both airplanes are cat III airframes. However (speaking of the E190 only), for the airplane to be cat III the company has to buy the 2nd autopilot which we did not. We did however buy dual HUDs which can substitute for the 2nd AP allowing cat IIIb ops. Hence the hand-flown cat III approaches (it won't arm unless the AP is off by 500 RA). Apparently the bean counters went for the HUDs instead of 2 APs. The HUDs also allow us to do RVR 3/3/3 Low Vis T/Os. The HUDs give us a graphical depiction of the runway centerline (deviation indicator) to make it safe

Not sure what the autothrottles pay in the picture...we do have the autothrottles as well.

12-27-2008, 06:32 PM

#14

tanker

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Quote:

SWA has been CAT III for several years.

It has been more than several years. SWA started doing CAT III in 1995, the paperwork process was something that Morris started that SWA was smart enough to follow through on.

Quote:

Another question for the SW folks. What is the max tailwind on landing for the 737.

The max tailwind is 10 knots, unless the braking action is poor. Then it drops to 5 knots.

12-27-2008, 06:40 PM

#15

GoGators85

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Joined APC: Feb 2007

Posts: 34

Quote:

Originally Posted by remlap

Let me ask a quick question of the SWA folks. Is SWA now doing CAT III approaches? We went into JAX the other night and it was CAT III. SWA followed us in. I was surprised, I understood that SWA was CAT I.

Thanks

Last night... God what a mess that was. That must have been before the approach lights went out. That little mishap turned a 50 min flight into a 4hr ordeal. Big thanks to the airtran crew who got me home.

12-27-2008, 07:03 PM

#16

Adlerdriver

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So what are the mins for a Cat-3 hand flown w/ HUD?
I would assume it's got to be "see to land" in some form rather than what's allowable with a Cat-3 autoland.

It would be interesting to see what the cost difference is between HUD/hand-flown ops and maintaining A/Ps to cat-3 standards.

12-27-2008, 07:12 PM

#17

paxhauler85

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Adlerdriver

Hand flown mins are 50 feet, if I remember correctly.

12-27-2008, 07:18 PM

#18

Dash8Pilot

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I don't know about Southwest, but Horizon's Dash 8's were RVR 600/600/600 with a 50 ft DH. I think they mentioned in training that the Q400 and CRJ-700s were 600/600/400, though I never flew them so I'm not positive on that.