How much fog is too much?

[Oliver A]

Melbourne was supposed to have Cat III capability by the end of 2008, don't know what happened to that...

http://www.theage.com.au/national/fl...0604-2ly3.html

[Owen H]

Work has definately been done in preparation for it - new taxiway lights, hold bars, and a new ILS installation.

As to when it will happen - who knows!

[Nigel C]

Nick, the lighting requirements for it are huge, both in initial installation and ongoing maintenance. Upgrades would be required to the taxiways, High Intensity Approach Lighting (HIAL's) and touchdown zones (TDZ). I've not looked into whether the stopbars are a requirement, but I'm sure Google or someone else here would have the answer!

Sydney used to have TDZ lighting and a much bigger HIAL on Rwy 16R but it was removed a few years ago partly because it required upgrading but mainly due to the extreme cost of maintaining it. IIRC Sydney had Cat I ILS and Cat II runway lighting at the time.

[Gerard M]

Thanks for all the help people. Its much appreciated as always!

Gerard

[David Ramsay]

Auckland is the only airport in this part of the world with a CAT III ILS. It was commissioned about a year ago.

[Nigel C]

Does it get used to its full potential often?

[Andrew McLaughlin]

We've got a pea-souper out in the Hills district this morning...how is it at the airport Nigel?

[Nigel C]

It was clear when I left at 0515, but there were small patches around Sylvania. The early TAF suggested vis of 3000 in mist.

[Will T]

David, just had a look at the chart for Auckland's Cat IIIB ILS approach (am still yet to fly one into there), and noticed that for the A330/A380, the Decision Height is 0' RA... ie, the point at which the required visual reference must be achieved (or else a missed approach commenced) is at touchdown! This is the first time I've seen this. The lowest DH on the 744 is always 20' RA for a Cat IIIB ILS.

[David Ramsay]

Nigel, it's probably been somewhere between six and ten times, I haven't really been counting. It certainly proved it's worth on those occasions. Fog season is coming up so it's likely to get a good workout in the next couple of months.

Will, that's interesting but not being a pilot I can't really offer any intelligent comment.

As you'll appreciate, there are some closely defined procedures for CAT III ladnings. These effectively only allow one aircraft to be landing or taxiing at any given time in order to protect the sensitive areas of the localiser.

Aircraft doing practice auto lands in VMC are always advised that the sensitive areas of the localiser are not protected.