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