| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:how accurate is heathrow webtrak? | |
| Posted by: | Richard Jennings | |
| Date/Time: | 10/12/07 00:28:00 |
| Landing at Kai Tak was hairy enough without a "fancy" curved approach! (Pilots had to make a 47° right turn just before landing. An example video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnokcAu0c4 ) "technological developments such as curved approaches might come into play in the MM [mixed mode] timescale." I think it's more likely that new technology will be used to manage a 3-runway airport with similar straight approaches to those in use today. Without new technology, NATS are proposing very long (25-mile) approaches as the only way of handling 3 runways, but have started to look at something called RNP-RNAV as a way of enabling 10-mile approaches to continue safely. MLS is installed at Heathrow, but its main use will be to improve landing capacity in poor weather conditions and overcome some technical limitations of ILS. Satellite-based systems such as RNP and RNAV are overtaking MLS as the preferred technology. The impression I get is that nobody is actively developing a way of handling large volumes of flights using multiple curved approaches to several runways. The NATS study report on managing 3 runways doesn't even mention curved approaches. |