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#21
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Who can land in 'fog'
"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
I"m not sure how you could know what the flight visibility was. I"ve landed many times when tower is reporting 1/4 mile vis. There is no requirement that you not land. The only FAA requirement is flight visibility (which tower cannot measure). Air carriers are restricted to the 'reported' visibilty. D. |
#22
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Who can land in 'fog'
"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
It doesn't matter if the airspace around the airport is class C or B it only matters if the requriements for the approach are met. Usually the hangup is centerline lighting which is expensive to add. I'm sure that the airports with frequent low weather are more likely to have the centerline lighting although many airports in the PNW, including KBFI, do not have it.. I suspect that there is an element of politics in who gets the money. The FAA's testing and evaluation center is located at ACY. They had a Cat II installed but we couldn't use it because Cat II visibility requires SCMGS and the taxiways didn't have centerline lighting. How's that for foresight? D. |
#23
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Who can land in 'fog'
"RK Henry" wrote in message
That raises another question: Who here has gotten the certification for non-commercial Cat II? How difficult was the certification? Was it worth the trouble? How difficult was it to maintain the currency? I've thought it might be cool to be able to fly Cat II in a Cherokee, but I doubt it's worth the trouble. Part 91 aircraft with an approach airspeed of less than 90 knots can be approved for Cat II approaches. Print out AOPA's directions for this certification before applying to the FAA because many inspectors won't know what you are talking about. Staying current isn't much more work than regular IFR currency. D. |
#24
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Who can land in 'fog'
On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 02:41:58 GMT, RK Henry
wrote: On 23 Nov 2005 12:58:14 -0800, wrote: I read a report about a local airport with this statement: "With existing Instrument Landing System (ILS) technology, inclement weather, such as fog, is not a material obstacle to commercial service operations." I was under the impression that the FAA says fog is 1/4 mile visibility. Can anyone legally land in fog? That raises another question: Who here has gotten the certification for non-commercial Cat II? How difficult was the certification? Was it worth the trouble? How difficult was it to maintain the currency? I've thought it might be cool to be able to fly Cat II in a Cherokee, but I doubt it's worth the trouble. RK Henry Paperwork took more time than the flight test. Other than that, and the fact that I was the first to do it at my FSDO (Portland, ME), it was not particularly difficult. The recurrent flight checks (every 6 months with an FAA examiner) were likewise easy to do. I have not kept it up since I moved from KASH to KEPM. In the three or four years that I maintained it, it was useful on one occasion. And that was for obtaining an IFR clearance BGR-BOS at a time when BOS was requiring that a/c headed there had to be able to land with an RVR of 1200. (By the time we got to BOS, the visibility had improved to 1/2 mile). Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA) |
#26
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Who can land in 'fog'
"Al" wrote I had an waiver to go to 150' on a cat 1 approach for fog seeding. (We poured a 1 pound coofee can Is that anything like a coffee can? :-)) Really though, that sounds very interesting. What were the results of the testing? Are tests still going on anywhere? Tell us more! -- Jim in NC |
#27
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Who can land in 'fog'
He he, you are right. It was very similar to a "Coffee" can, Folgers in
fact. In Medford, Oregon, in the '70's and '80's, we flew fog seeding for United Airlines. Equipment was a older C-182 with an inspection plate removed in the center of the rear seat floor. We would grind up 15-20 lbs of dry ice, and on repeated passes, pour 1 coffee can worth out the hole through a dish pan, during a low approach. (The approaches were flown both ways, front course to 150', climb to 800 agl, do a 90-270, and fly the backcourse with no GS to 150' on the way back. Localizer flag indicated the end of the runway). If the conditions were right, we had great success. The fog had to be between 33 and about 25 degrees for good results. We would seed for 20 minutes, wait for 20 minutes, and see results for about 20 minutes. (Later known as the Bill Warren 20-20 rule of fog seeding) After 20 minutes of seeding, (3-4 passes), it would snow on the ground for about 20 min. and the visibility would improve. It was not uncommon to go from ceiling of 0 and an RVR of less than 600 to 300 overcast and 1 mile. These results were very local, just before you arrived at DH, you would bust into this "Clear weather tube", the length of the runway. This was "fascinating" flying. The first United flight in the morning was due at 06:15, so one had to start seeding around 5:00. This, of course, meant solid IFR at low altitude, at night, in a single engine airplane, in icing conditions. With each pass, we would climb to VFR conditions, where the temps were a lot higher, and burn off the Ice. I only did it for a year, but there were pilots there like Bill, and George DiMartini that had done it for years. Once on a training flight, I pulled an engine on George who calmly shot a "No visibility" ILS to touchdown, deadstick. I always felt more "lost" on the ground. After loading the aircraft, I would start it, turn on the baggage light under the left wing, and put the left main tire on the yellow taxi stripe. I would taxi out to the hold short line, and shut it down for a minute while I climbed out and broke off the 3/4 inch of ice the prop had built up during taxi. Re-enter, re-start, and taxi on a heading of 90 until the localizer for rwy32 centered, then a left turn to 320, and depart. Total pay was $15 per flight hour, so if you got 1 1/2 hours in the morning, and the same in the evening(6:30pm departure), you could make almost $50 a day before taxes. Instrument currency was never a problem, and you got REALLY good at holding a heading. Sometimes it almost seemed like a video game, or simulator. Once I had done the twenty minutes of seeding, and the RVR was very slow coming up. United was 30 North, so I decided to shorten my pattern, and drop a load right over the RVR meter. After making a pass southbound, I started a left turn toward the RVR meter and simply forgot to climb. Apparently there is a hill called "Coker Butte" just east of the runway at Medford. It is about 100' high, and passed under my left wing while I was in the turn. It has a white house with a yellow bug light on the porch. There was a white 63-64 Chev Impala parked in the driveway under the bug light, it had current Oregon plates. Al "Morgans" wrote in message ... "Al" wrote I had an waiver to go to 150' on a cat 1 approach for fog seeding. (We poured a 1 pound coofee can Is that anything like a coffee can? :-)) Really though, that sounds very interesting. What were the results of the testing? Are tests still going on anywhere? Tell us more! -- Jim in NC |
#28
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Who can land in 'fog'
"Al" wrote Apparently there is a hill called "Coker Butte" just east of the runway at Medford. It is about 100' high, and passed under my left wing while I was in the turn. It has a white house with a yellow bug light on the porch. There was a white 63-64 Chev Impala parked in the driveway under the bug light, it had current Oregon plates. That story belongs in the big scare thread! Is the procedure still widely used today? -- Jim in NC |
#29
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Who can land in 'fog'
On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 at 09:59:36 in message
_hIhf.6632$Wu.5475@fed1read05, Darrell S wrote: Naw. Autoland systems exchange crab to wing low at 150' AGL and at 50' AGL the throttles come to idle and the aircraft enters Flare. At wheel spin up it changes to "Roll Out" and continues to track the localizer centerline to keep the aircraft on the runway. It makes beautiful landings. I would have assumed that the flare depends mostly on the radar height and not the glide slope. I don't see how glide slope alone can supply the data on which to flare. The change from crab to runway align according to information I have regarding the 747-400, is that it takes place at 500 ft. The 50 ft height for flare mode activation is confirmed in the same document. -- David CL Francis |
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