Originally Posted by
papatango269
Well, mr. chief pilot said, referring to Cat II approaches in a heavy airplane, that the airplane will likely touch the mains on the go. I don't believe that goes for Cat III approaches, but I'm not sure.
Thanks for everybodys input.
mr. Chief Pilot is talking through his hat.
Cat I is usually 200ft when based on altitude.
Cat IIs are usually 100ft DH and Cat IIIA is a 50DH while the Cat IIIB is a AH.. decision height versus alert height. On a IIIa, you make a decision to land or go around at 50ft. With an AH on IIIB, you just continue and need to see NOTHING to land.
There is no one, to my knowledge, certified to IIIC which is zero/zero. And that is not due to aircraft systems but were there a crash there is no way to get the accident response team to the runway and no way to determine if there was a crash rather than a successful landing.
Note too that ATC will clear you for the ILS, not for a Cat I or Cat IIIB approach. they will call RVR but they do not know your mins and for example, if you are Part 91 in the US, you don't have mins per se. You can shoot a 'look see' if reports are below mins, something the -121 and -135 ops can't.
And Cat IIIs are to an obviously lower altitude than Cat IIs.