Narrative:

I was the operating captain inbound to edfh. The first officer was the pilot flying and there was another first officer sitting in the observer's seat. Prior to our arrival the first officer completed a normal set up and briefing for an ILS to runway 21 and the emgod 1R arrival as filed noting a 5;000 feet transition level in the CDU.approaching the frankfurt area we were maintaining fl 100 and proceeding directly to position ropuv. We were cleared to descend to 5;000 feet on 1026hpa. As we approached 5;000 feet langdon radar asked us how long of a final approach would we like. I told him 15 miles. He said in this case proceed to position 504 then to 515. These points were not on the emgod 1R arrival but on the ropuv 1A. I scrambled to find the points; put them into the FMS then to raluv and added the proper altitudes and speeds. As we approached the localizer radar informed us that there was a new visibility of 2;000 meters and still a ceiling of 400 feet. We acknowledged and were cleared for the approach. Passing 1;000 feet on the glide slope we made the standard calls and then noticed that very shortly after that we heard plus 100 and then minimums. The runway was not in sight so the first officer did a normal missed approach procedure. The tower sent us back to radar control who was surprised by our miss and asked us if it was a visibility problem. I said yes that we didn't have the runway in sight at minimums. He asked if we wanted to try again. I said yes. He cleared us to 5;000 feet and gave us a radar vector for the downwind. He then asked if we would like a cat2 approach. I said yes and began setting the plane up for the cat2 approach. Sounding like he was still trying to figure out the reason for our miss he stated altimeter 1026? I looked down and saw 1026 and said yes that's what we have 1026. He said ok and turned us onto base leg. A few seconds later we realized what we had done wrong. 1026 was preselected only but not active. Obviously in the rush to change the arrival routing we had forgotten to change to qnh. Since our initial approach altitude was 5;000 and the missed approach altitude was 5;000 and the transition in the FMS was 5;000 we never set the MCP altitude below transition and that caused the altimeter setting not to change to amber warning us that we had not changed to qnh. We set the altimeter properly and since we were set up for the cat2 I continued to fly the plane and make the autoland. The rest was normal.in the past I have always chosen to change to qnh when passing transition level. I now feel that it is better to change to qnh immediately upon receiving a clearance to descend to a qnh altitude.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A flight crew inbound to EDFH preset their QNH as advised when cleared to descend but failed to activate it by the transition altitude of 5;000 feet MSL. As a result they executed a missed approach prematurely on the ILS. They discovered their error; reset; and completed a second approach using CAT2 and autoland.

Narrative: I was the operating captain inbound to EDFH. The first officer was the Pilot flying and there was another first officer sitting in the observer's seat. Prior to our arrival the first officer completed a normal set up and briefing for an ILS to runway 21 and the EMGOD 1R arrival as filed noting a 5;000 feet Transition Level in the CDU.Approaching the Frankfurt area we were maintaining FL 100 and proceeding directly to position ROPUV. We were cleared to descend to 5;000 feet on 1026hpa. As we approached 5;000 feet Langdon radar asked us how long of a final approach would we like. I told him 15 miles. He said in this case proceed to position 504 then to 515. These points were not on the EMGOD 1R arrival but on the ROPUV 1A. I scrambled to find the points; put them into the FMS then to RALUV and added the proper altitudes and speeds. As we approached the localizer radar informed us that there was a new visibility of 2;000 meters and still a ceiling of 400 feet. We acknowledged and were cleared for the approach. Passing 1;000 feet on the glide slope we made the standard calls and then noticed that very shortly after that we heard plus 100 and then minimums. The runway was not in sight so the first officer did a normal missed approach procedure. The Tower sent us back to radar control who was surprised by our miss and asked us if it was a visibility problem. I said yes that we didn't have the runway in sight at minimums. He asked if we wanted to try again. I said yes. He cleared us to 5;000 feet and gave us a radar vector for the downwind. He then asked if we would like a cat2 approach. I said yes and began setting the plane up for the cat2 approach. Sounding like he was still trying to figure out the reason for our miss he stated Altimeter 1026? I looked down and saw 1026 and said yes that's what we have 1026. He said ok and turned us onto base leg. A few seconds later we realized what we had done wrong. 1026 was preselected only but not active. Obviously in the rush to change the arrival routing we had forgotten to change to QNH. Since our Initial approach altitude was 5;000 and the missed approach altitude was 5;000 and the transition in the FMS was 5;000 we never set the MCP altitude below transition and that caused the altimeter setting not to change to amber warning us that we had not changed to QNH. We set the altimeter properly and since we were set up for the cat2 I continued to fly the plane and make the autoland. The rest was normal.In the past I have always chosen to change to QNH when passing transition level. I now feel that it is better to change to QNH immediately upon receiving a clearance to descend to a QNH altitude.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.