Astar planes parked?

[ABXbooger]

Rumor flying around that the FAA grounded 9 727 because of no taws...is this true?

 

[hvydriver]

LOL. No.

 

[Rhoid]

What about ABX getting their hand flown CAT II certification pulled? Anyone think that Dasburg and Astar might be behind it? ABX is going to be in deep $hit because the SP-50s on the DC-8 and DC-9 are usually not capable of keeping the aircraft in the CAT II window. Manibusin (sp) the ABX VP of MX says that there is not much MX can do to the autopilots to tweak them to try and keep them CAT II capable. ABX has said that they will not spend the bucks to put in a HGS system that would allow them hand flown CAT II's and even lower mins too. I guess the playing field is evening up between ABX and Astar, now that Astar is working on their own CAT II program and ABX's DC-8 and DC-9 fleet are iffy at best on going down to CAT II mins on their autopilots. Any Astar guys know what Astar is going to do for their CAT II program?

 

[steamgauge]

No. Not unless something goes horribly wrong on an individual basis. They put TAWS above RVSM in priority which was the cause of the problem earlier.

As far as CAT II, we don't know how they are going to do it since the study isn't done. Everything's on the table. I would suspect the problem is going to be vendors not $.

Steam

 

[ABXbooger]

ABX lost it's cat II several years ago, but the FAA paperwork was lost and hence was never revoked. From my experience, I would say that close to 90% of our planes can fly a Cat II AP approach...we'll see. Fact is we still have Cat II capability, regardless of how it is done...more importantly we can accept cat II approaches, regardless of the outcome.

 

[Rhoid]

ABX lost it's cat II several years ago, but the FAA paperwork was lost and hence was never revoked. From my experience, I would say that close to 90% of our planes can fly a Cat II AP approach...we'll see. Fact is we still have Cat II capability, regardless of how it is done...more importantly we can accept cat II approaches, regardless of the outcome.

Sounds to me like you are saying that you will continue a CAT II approach with the autopilot even though it might take you beyond 1/3 of a dot or off the glideslope just so you can make it in and so that Astar can't go running to DHL saying ABX is no longer reliable. Have you read the flight crew letter prohibiting CAT II eval approaches unless the weather requires it or for time compliance? Why else would they put it out unless they know that quite a few autopilots will not keep it in the window. Talking to my DC-8 buds, they ALL tell me the VAST majority of DC-8s in the fleet will not come close to keeping the plane in the window.

 

[ABXbooger]

What I said was we are still able to accept cat II approaches. We shall see how the autopilots hold up.

 

[steamgauge]

Non-Taws A/C Out of Service at Astar

Less than 5; all scheduled for C-Checks at the same time. Still a handfull of A/C non-RVSM compliant due to non-STC'd movement of static ports by previous operators.

Steam

 

[scarface]

I've been out of the 8 for awhile but I've done my share of CAT II evals with the autopilot and if you give the autopilot a fair chance and don't rush it with an in close turn on and warp 9 to the marker it'll hack it. I've sat on the jumpseat of the 9 during a couple of coupled CATII approaches and Otto kept in the window quite well.