[Mr Floatplane]

Phuket has an ILS on Runway 27 - it is NOT suitable for auto-land.

It is a Cattogary1 ILS (Cat1 : DH 200)

- Basically to land the pilot must be visual with the runway environment (landing lights/PAPI or runway threshold) by 200 feet above ground level (Decision Height) if not, then the pilot must conduct a missed approach (go around).

“An ILS does not land the aircraft”

correct

“Basically it gives the pilots guidance”

Correct, but to that you can add, an ILS signal may be coupled to an autopilot/autoland system to provide glide-slope and tracking input all the way down onto the runway. (However a Catogary1 ISLis not protected as much for signal interference compared to a CAT III ILS which is suitable for auto-land)

“I was in the cockbit of an Ansett B767 coming into Perth one clear night and they were practising an Instrument Landing, they had pillows in front of the windows in the cockpit. When the check captain removed the pillows we were substantially off course and they had to do some pretty severe corrections to get it back on course. Real white knuckle stuff.”

They must have been sh*t pilots! Flying an ISL is not particularly difficult. If they did not know they were substantially off course until looking outside, then they should not be flying.

Of course staying on track is a different matter if the weather conditions exceed the aircraft limitations!

It is interesting to read the thread from people in Phuket at the time, obviously the weather was terrible at the time, however the Phuket aerodrome weather is shown as not bad at all: 12 knot winds, 3km visability, light rain, scattered cloud at 1,500 feet…( For anyone interested see VTSP weather below).

Still, a micro burst is hard to detect until you are in one, and then it is probably too late. ( Doppler Radar maybe the answer, as developed after the Denver wind shear crash 20 years ago)

Phuket weather:

VTSP 161030Z 29011KT 3000 -RA SCT015 BKN110 BKN300 25/24 Q1006 A2973
VTSP 161000Z 27009KT 3000 RA SCT015 BKN110 BKN300 25/24 Q1006 A2973
VTSP 160930Z 27008KT 3000 RA SCT015 BKN110 BKN300 23/22 Q1006 2972
VTSP 160900Z 27012KT 1000 RA SCT015 BKN110 BKN300 24/23 Q1006 2973
VTSP 160830Z 24012KT 4000 SCT015 BKN110 BKN300 26/24 Q1006 A2971 VCSH NW
VTSP 160800Z 27007KT 4000 SCT015 BKN110 BKN300 26/24 Q1006 A2972 VCSH N
VTSP NIL
VTSP 160700Z 33003KT 3000 -RA SCT015 BKN110 BKN300 25/24 Q1007 A2975
VTSP 160630Z 33004KT 3000 -RA SCT015 BKN110 BKN300 25/24 Q1007 A2976