APPROACHES AND LANDINGS IN LOW VISIBILITY BY DAY
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Year Published: 1945
Creator: Blind Landing Experimental Unit Royal Air Force
Description: This training film "Approaches and Landings in Low Visibility By Day" was apparently made by the Blind Landing Experimental Unit, or BLEU, which was formed at RAF Woodbridge and RAF Martlesham Heath during 1945 and 1946. BLEU was a unit of the British government tasked with creating an early autolanding system for military and civilian aircraft from the late 1940s until the mid-1960s. Research during the first few years at BLEU led to the conclusion that a promising approach to blind landing would be a fully automatic system, and produced a definition of the requirements for such a system, later designated Autoland. BLEU's work resulted in an eponymous system for controlling airplane landings; Flight Lieutenant Noel Adams made the first automatic landing on 3 July 1950 in BLEU's test plane, a Vickers Varsity. The system was eventually approved for commercial use, and on 4 November 1964, Captain Eric Poole landed a British European Airways flight at Heathrow with visibility of 40 meters, which was the first use of the system to land a commercial flight in such severe conditions.The BLEU played a vital role in the development of autolanding, and descendants of its system are still in use around the world today. This film was shot by the R.A.E. Bedford Flight Photographic Group. The runways shown are likely at Heathrow, which was used by BLEU pilots for test flights when it was fogged in. • 0:25: Cloud base at 310 ft, runway visual range 1,000 m, Category 1 conditions. The pilot is using manual control for landing. • 1:36: Cloud base at 160 ft, runway visual range 700 m, near upper limits of Category 2. Conditions worsen during the second test run. • 2:36: Cloud base at 130 ft, runway visual range 400 m, near lower limits of Category 2. Manual control throughout, with high risk of abandoned landings. • 3:25: Cloud base at 60 ft, runway visual range 200 m, Category 3A. Pilot relies on automatic approach and landing procedures. • 4:23: Category 3B corresponds to a minimum runway visual range of 50 m. Fully automatic blind landing systems are essential for safety. • 6:14: Category 1 approach in shallow, patchy fog. Visual segment is large, about 3,500 ft at a wheel height of 280 ft. • 7:23: Category 3B, runway visual range 150 m. Visual contact early in approach, but visual segment shortens significantly. • 8:22: Category 3B, runway visual range 150 m, deeper fog. Visual contact established at 170 ft, but brief glimpses of lights down to 70 ft. • 9:30: Test runs in shallow and deeper fog, runway visual range of 90 m. Visual contact reestablished at the threshold. • 10:25: Runway visual range 90 m, near lower limit of Category 3B. Pilots experience different visual sequences in various fog conditions.
Complete Record: This training film "Approaches and Landings in Low Visibility By Day" was apparently made by the Blind Landing Experimental Unit, or BLEU, which was formed at RAF Woodbridge and RAF Martlesham Heath during 1945 and 1946. BLEU was a unit of the British government tasked with creating an early autolanding system for military and civilian aircraft from the late 1940s until the mid-1960s. Research during the first few years at BLEU led to the conclusion that a promising approach to blind landing would be a fully automatic system, and produced a definition of the requirements for such a system, later designated Autoland. BLEU's work resulted in an eponymous system for controlling airplane landings; Flight Lieutenant Noel Adams made the first automatic landing on 3 July 1950 in BLEU's test plane, a Vickers Varsity. The system was eventually approved for commercial use, and on 4 November 1964, Captain Eric Poole landed a British European Airways flight at Heathrow with visibility of 40 meters, which was the first use of the system to land a commercial flight in such severe conditions.The BLEU played a vital role in the development of autolanding, and descendants of its system are still in use around the world today. This film was shot by the R.A.E. Bedford Flight Photographic Group. The runways shown are likely at Heathrow, which was used by BLEU pilots for test flights when it was fogged in. • 0:25: Cloud base at 310 ft, runway visual range 1,000 m, Category 1 conditions. The pilot is using manual control for landing. • 1:36: Cloud base at 160 ft, runway visual range 700 m, near upper limits of Category 2. Conditions worsen during the second test run. • 2:36: Cloud base at 130 ft, runway visual range 400 m, near lower limits of Category 2. Manual control throughout, with high risk of abandoned landings. • 3:25: Cloud base at 60 ft, runway visual range 200 m, Category 3A. Pilot relies on automatic approach and landing procedures. • 4:23: Category 3B corresponds to a minimum runway visual range of 50 m. Fully automatic blind landing systems are essential for safety. • 6:14: Category 1 approach in shallow, patchy fog. Visual segment is large, about 3,500 ft at a wheel height of 280 ft. • 7:23: Category 3B, runway visual range 150 m. Visual contact early in approach, but visual segment shortens significantly. • 8:22: Category 3B, runway visual range 150 m, deeper fog. Visual contact established at 170 ft, but brief glimpses of lights down to 70 ft. • 9:30: Test runs in shallow and deeper fog, runway visual range of 90 m. Visual contact reestablished at the threshold. • 10:25: Runway visual range 90 m, near lower limit of Category 3B. Pilots experience different visual sequences in various fog conditions.
Transcription
[Music] Cloud base 310 ft Runway visual range 1,000 M EO category 1 visibility is low we are coming into land the pilot is using manual control for the approach and Landing the low limit of category 1 is generally accepted in Britain as an operational minimum for manually controlled Landings visual contact the pilot now has about 12 seconds to make any lateral Corrections before starting the flare the numbers indicate the wheel height of the aircraft in feet e Cloud base 160 ft Runway visual range 700 M near the upper limits of EO Category 2 conditions are getting worse on this second test run one of a series planned and filmed by the blind Landing experimental unit of the royal aircraft establishment at Bedford to gain information on pilot and Equipment deficiencies during low visibility Landing operations another manual approach and Landing the pilot affects lateral Corrections once visual contact has been established Cloud base 130 ft Runway visual range 400 m near the lower limits of AO Category 2 for our flight manual control throughout but currently some civil aircraft operators are attempting to reduce operating Minima to this category using an instrument approach with manual control for the last 100 ft but the risk is high as many as one in four of the attempted Landings may have to be abandoned visual contact just below the cloud base and very little time for lateral Corrections before starting the flare Cloud base 60 ft Runway visual range 200 m category 3A conditions are even worse the pilot must rely on automatic approach and Landing procedures in low visibility the pilot is dependent on instruments and systems now being devised and developed by British industry backed up by the most advanced research a glimpse of the Final Approach lights but the first useful visual contact the white painted threshold markings more definable than the lights in daytime fogs category 3B corresponds to a minimum Runway visual range of 50 m for civil aircraft to be able to operate regularly and safely in such conditions Britain believes fully automatic blind Landing systems are essential and by developing testing and proving failure Survival Systems in which any single failure does not affect the performance of the system the aim is a safety Target for all weather operations of less than one fatal accident in 10 million Landings by 1970 for category one an approach in Shallow patchy fog during the formation period the visual segment the length of lighting bounded by the cockpit cut off and the most distant light visible to the pilot is large about 3,500 ft at a wheel height of 280 ft in addition to experimental flights by day a series of test runs planned by the blind Landing experimental unit of re Bedford are giving valuable information on pilot and Equipment efficiencies during low visibility Landing operations by night category a 3B Runway visual range 150 m in such conditions of shallow and patchy fog the pilot can make visual contact early in the approach and he could assume he will have a large visual segment to touchdown four crossbars are still visible at a wheel height of 250 ft however as the aircraft approaches the fog top the visual segment shortens and at 150 ft barely 500 ft of approach lighting is visible entering the fog top the visual segment further decreases until momentarily at 70 ft no lighting is visible as the flare progresses the runway lighting again becomes visible category 3B Runway visual range again 150 M but the fog is deeper and because of this the visual sequence experienced by the pilot is different the first visual contact is established at 170 ft but only brief glimpses of the lights are seen down to 70 ft contacted is momentarily lost until the runway lights are again visible at 40 ft the remaining two test runs are studying conditions of shallow patchy fog and deeper fog for a Runway visual range of 9 M again after early visual contact the visual segment shrinks and disappears contact is not reestablished until the aircraft crosses the threshold Runway visual range 90 M near the the lower limit of category 3B and with conditions of deeper fog this filmed sequence of test has enabled Pilots to experience the different visual sequences associated with different fog conditions Bleu have taken another step forward in their program to obtain information essential for all weather operations for
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