Rob L wrote:
Mike Tango (and others): may I politely ask what "Land at Your Discretion" actually means? I don't mean in the legal sense; I mean in the English language sense. Why is the word "discretion" (which means judgement) used, when every landing I do needs my judgement, be it in charge of a 747 at Heathrow or in a Piper Cub at a private strip?
Rob L
Good question. I’d guess that, whoever decided coming up with the idea of this half baked aerodrome control service that isn’t an aerodrome control service was a good idea then had to come up with a form of words to say that, as far as the person sat in the tower was concerned, there were no obvious reasons why you can’t land but, as they’re not allowed to use the ‘cleared’ word, discretion was substituted instead.
Be it full fat ATC or FISO the pilot will always be the one who decides on whether to actually land or not. Albeit in full fat ATC there will be occasions, such as low viz ops, when ATC are the only ones in the partnership who can be sure the runway is actually clear to land on when issuing the clearance.
Personally I’m not a fan of the aerodrome FISO concept. If it’s busy enough to justify AT
C, it should have AT
C. If it’s not let everyone get on with it themselves.
My facile comment is just my opinion whenever I see the likes of “ the chap(pess) on the ground whatever their title is there for your benefit not the other way round and cannot get hurt by their pronouncements but you could be.” being uttered.
Facile meaning ‘ignoring the true complexities of an issue; superficial.’