I can't speak to the regular 727s but the Valsan conversion could not autoland.

I would give my left cajone to be in the cockpit on a 727 autoland.

The Valsan conversion was done on many 727s, both for FedEx and other companies. The autopilot capability of the donor aircraft determined whether the plane was auto land capable. All the 727-S2Fs, which Fedex ordered new from Boeing and were the only 727s we converted to Valsan configuration, were all capable of CatIIIa (auto land with no rollout) approaches, requiring 600 RVR. These airplanes were the best factory equipped 727s, and were the last 17 planes off the Boeing 727 line.

Perhaps the Valsan airplanes you are familiar with were converted from planes equipped with older, less capable autopilots.

Fdx727,

How many hours did those last 17 planes have?

GF

I stand corrected then. I had the opportunity to fly two of the ex-FedEx Valsan 727s at my previous company. I thought they were not autoland capable with the removal of the autothrottles. They only operated them as Cat 1 birds anyways. I will agree with you that they are some of the most capable 727s ever made. We even added a GPS to them when we picked them out of VCV. The added performance made the job much easier.

Obviously, the systems the carrier maintains has a lot to do with it. I flew at a 727 charter outfit before Fedex. That outfit deactivated any airplanes with auto throttles, auto spoilers, and the APR system on some jets we got from Panam with -17R engines. They didn't want to spend the money maintaining them. Cat II was as low as we could go.

Btw - I took N209FE out to VCV, when we returned it to the leasing company. Really sad to see those jets go.

It has been a while since I flew a FDX 727, but as I recall, none of them had auto throttles activated (The FO or SO was the Auto Throttle). They were still Cat 3.
The former FDX SIBA 727's had GPS installed.

As long as we are on memory lane, none of the 100s were Cat 3 and some of the older 200s were only Cat 2. I think there were some 100s that were Cat 3 capable in theory but we're not maintained to that standard. I think all of the airplanes had GPSs but they only bought x number of FMC like control heads. They could swap them out.

Just one of the many, many changes that they keep rolling out. :(

The throttles on the 727 at FedEx were voice activated: the PF called for takeoff or climb power and the SO set it.:)