Originally Posted by
Buchanan10
Fact. If everything has been exhausted, then why not take it all the way down with the HUD, It gives you guideance Q and flare information and it's something you are familar with and are qualifed down to CatIII mins to 50' anyway. Why would you risk something that is not certified in the ops spec and you're not familiar with or confident in?
Or, just declare an emergency, put on both autopilots, and monitor. With the HUD. Do what every other 737 operator in the world does. But better, because you have the HUD. And becuase you haven't been hand flying, just monitoring, it's pretty easy to take over if the flare doesn't happen, as opposed to tunnel vision from hand flying down to 50' RA on a HUD, with an FO who is sweating next to you, hoping you know what you are doing. Currently in the SIM, on the 737 (not for SWA). Had to do a "raw data ILS", runway visible from 10 miles out. Instructor asked me when was the last time I did that. "last time I flew a visual on the 320". I firmly believe in hand flying skills. I also believe SWA is wrong in not training for autoland.