ILS critical area

Windsor Newcomer mke/msp

At my airline (Pinnacle) coupled will always mean Cat II. Other airlines, it may mean Cat II or III depending on the aircraft and crew qualifications.

For example, the weather is clear but the aircraft needs a Cat II approach flown to maintain its currency, I'll tell approach that we are doing a "coupled approach". They will pass that on to tower and hopefully the ILS Crit area will remain clear so the Cat II approach can be completed successfully. There is a whole laundry list of things that need to be complied with in order for the test approach to be considered SAT.

For a Cat II approach we are doing things differently in the cockpit. The ILS is the same, our procedures are different. The normal Cat I approach is flown to wx mins of 200 & 1/2. Cat II allows us to go down to 1200rvr with an indefinite ceiling, this changes how we fly the approach and what we are doing in the cockpit.
In the real world when the wx is at mins on a Cat II or III coupled approach, we have mere seconds to decide to land or not IF we see the runway vs. a Cat 1 appch where we break out at 200ft agl and have 10-15 seconds to see the runway and land.

Clear as mud?

Roddy_Piper Resident Knucklehead Vegas baby

i see what your saying. i guess it's just different on our end. our rules don't take into account everything you guys are doing in the cockpit. unless you say a few magic words, like "coupled" or "autoland" then our response is the same on a Cat II ILS. which is basically business as normal.

i see u fly for pinnacle to MSP. you don't by chance fly out of IDA sometimes do you?

Windsor Newcomer mke/msp

I've been out there a few times both for work and for fun. I have an uncle that lives in Pocatello.

Roddy_Piper Resident Knucklehead Vegas baby

oh cool. i'm at IDA Tower, at least for another 3 weeks or so.