In an A300B4, Coming in to land from Gulf to Trivandram on an early morning arrival,I decided to land on VOR14 instead of ILS32 to save a bit of time since it was a long hopping flight. ILS 32 would have meant that we fly further south, turn around Northwest and come in for ILS on RWY 32 VOR !4 was geographically tantalisingly straightahead.. There was no ILS for RW14 those days.
Ofcourse we were completely immersed in clouds.The weather was legally within the minimums for the VOR14 rwy alright but I just didnt expect it to be just exactly at minimums value.Thunder clouds and low visibilty was prevalent.
We Came down to the MDA (Minimum Descent Altitude) through thick clouding and poor visibility and luckily inspite of my saying so, the approach was flawless . The copilot Bagai's reassuring voice said ........capt..rwy 11 ' O clock.......I just about had a fraction of a second to decide whether to land or not ....With my good flying skill , I deftly just steered the aircraft slightly to the left and did a greaser touchdown.It was an impressive demonstration .
I used my extraordinary flying skill to get out of a potentially tight situation.....
After landing, travelling to the Kovalam Hotel in that rattling Ambassador taxi, with the taxi driver driving with wild abandon with the Horn blaring away , .Bagai said, "Sir! That was a great landing. You showed lightning fast reflex actions."
That had me thinking ...That was great OK.. But was I Great...What if I had misjudged the rate of descent or approach angle etc etc due to my fatigue factor...Why did I not take the safer ILS option which would have brought me to a lower altitude and safely with the runway just in front exactly on the glideslope. making the job of a safe landing that much easier???If I didnt have the option of ILS or if the winds were against the ILS rwy It was understandable since there would have been no choice..
But when I had a safer option, I elected to choose a convenient option because we were at the end of a long flight. But, because of that very reason, I should have taken the safer ILS option. The sleepy passengers deserve better respect than that.
I really learnt a lesson from that flight.
A good pilot uses his extraordinary flying skills to get out of tight situations. But a great pilot is the one who first of all never gets into any situations that will necessitate him to use his extraordinary flying skills to get out of.