Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1712113
I have made similar approaches into Alderney using the LPV. It's quite weird because of a valley before the threshold of 26. I have flown the approach when I could clearly see the airport terminal but not the runway. Enter the fog with 200 ft to go to minima and pop out with 50 ft to go and hand on levers for go around and happily land in clear air. 8)
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By foxmoth
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1712331
Enter the fog with 200 ft to go to minima and pop out with 50 ft to go and hand on levers for go around and happily land in clear air.

I have done better than that- landed at Manchester in a 757 able to see ALL the way down to landing but had to auto land as they were giving <200m, when we got on the ground we were sitting on top of the fog and could see everything but had to send the follow me away as he was sitting in it, could see very little and was getting in the way!
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By Lefty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1712342
johnm wrote:I have made similar approaches into Alderney using the LPV. It's quite weird because of a valley before the threshold of 26. I have flown the approach when I could clearly see the airport terminal but not the runway. Enter the fog with 200 ft to go to minima and pop out with 50 ft to go and hand on levers for go around and happily land in clear air. 8)


Done that too - many times. It’s strange that you can see the runway from 7-8 miles out, then at 0.5 miles you hit that fog bank. Hold it steady, then you burst through the fog bank into CAVOK, with the runway in front of you.
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#1712346
Lefty wrote:..

Done that too - many times. It’s strange that you can see the runway from 7-8 miles out, then at 0.5 miles you hit that fog bank. Hold it steady, then you burst through the fog bank into CAVOK, with the runway in front of you.


ISTR quite a while ago a report in Air Clues. A Senior Officer was handling pilot of a C130 returning to Lyneham. He reported visual with the runway from a very long way out and said that he'd be doing a visual straight in approach. The ATCO told him that the rvr was below IFR limits because of fog, and he should expect to need to divert, and finally ordered him to go around into the Missed Approach procedure. Captain ignored the instruction, ran into the fog bank, and wrote off the aircraft in the ensuing heavy landing.
#1712347
The fog at Gatwick can be very odd at times. I have landed early in the morning where the first 1200 m of the runway was CAVOK and the stop end was absolutely clagged out. Very odd visual picture on landing with the whole world just disappearing like a line had been drawn.
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1712362
I've flown over the top of LAX like that...completely clear for 2/3 of the runway, shallow sea fog over the other 1/3. It was interesting watching the airliners below. I later flew out of there commercially and experienced it.

I've also landed on the half of the runway at Campbeltown which was in severe clear while the other half wasn't in fog, but was under a low layer.
#1712363
Josh wrote:The fog at Gatwick can be very odd at times. I have landed early in the morning where the first 1200 m of the runway was CAVOK and the stop end was absolutely clagged out. Very odd visual picture on landing with the whole world just disappearing like a line had been drawn.



This usually occurs on 26, the River Mole routes under the runway near the 08R threshold and this causes the fog to form more readily towards the western end of the aerodrome.
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