German Airforce A310 at Lossiemouth

[tarbat]

A rare sighting for me of a German Airforce A310 landing at Lossiemouth, using PAR talkdown into thick fog.

[tarbat]

And then declaring a missed approach and going around!

[tarbat]

And finally diverted to Aberdeen instead.

[AirNav Support]

Great screenshots, looks like he must have been pretty much on line for the runway, maybe too high.

[Allocator]

Great screenshots, looks like he must have been pretty much on line for the runway, maybe too high.

The pilot will have descended on the glidepath using instructions from the PAR (Talkdown) controller, until he arrived at his Minimum Descent Height (MDH).  MDH is the "make your mind up" point.  If you have the required visual references you continue and land, if not, then you have to execute a missed approach.  The MDH can be as low as 200 ft QNH (height above the airfield).

"On centreline, on glidepath ........"

[tarbat]

He reached a decision height, and still didn't have a visual of the runway.  Controllers kept asking him at what height he could see the runway lights, but there was a slight language problem between the Scottish controllers and the German pilot.

[Allocator]

It's funny that, whenever you ask a pilot when he saw the lights, they always come back with the minima for the approach - because they would never go below it would they!

My error earlier - it is Decision Height (DH) not MDH for a PAR - MDH is used for non-precision approaches (without an electronic glidepath).  you can level off at MDH, but not at DH.

[tarbat]

I often have mixed feelings when visibility is very bad.  On the one hand, it makes this hobby of plane/dot spotting much more interesting.  But on the other hand, it makes you appreciate some of the problems ATC and pilots have in such difficult conditions.

For example.  I just heard a Flybe pilot ask if any other aircraft have been able to get in to Inverness this morning.  He was told that one had recently landed, and he said he wished he could have followed that aircraft straight in, it might have blown away some of the fog.  The equivalent of following the car in front through thick fog!!!

The arrivals board at Inverness looks a mess - http://www.hial.co.uk/inverness-flights.html