SpeedBird 95 "DON'T tell me the RVR again"

[babotika]

We've been having absolutely wretched weather in Montreal all afternoon, visibility next to nothing. BAW95 was having a really hard time getting the legal vis for the approach, and kept switching runway. There was even talk of a MAYDAY.
In the end they heard 6000+ and asked the controllers to not update them as they were legal at that time. An interesting way to bend the rules

I'm sorry I don't have time to edit the clip right now, the whole runway switching thing lasts 30 minutes: http://archive-server.liveatc.net/cyul/CYUL-Mar-14-2007-2330Z.mp3

S.

[canuck101]

Somewhat reminds me of Toronto in certain situations:

After the Tower has informed you of the runway light strength, runway surface condition, previously reported braking action, the RVR, windspeed, and "possible glideslope fluctuations due to aircraft in the CDF" you've already landed and parked at the gate!

[The Hoffspatcher]

Nice clip.  Notice how BAW tells Terminal they need 1200m RVR then 1200ft then 2400ft, boy those manuals writers at BA must be flat out revising it that fast 

I do like low vis procedures, example ....

Arnie:  "Lufthansa 404 heavy, Kennedy Tower, four left number three following heavy Airbus, bases reported at 200ft, low level windshear plus or minus ten knots at 400ft thats by a 747 heavy jet, RVR more than six thousand and the wind, zero niner zero at two zero, oh yes, you're cleared to land"
Lufty:  Cleared to land zero four left, er ... copy, 404.

Can somebody say all that in one breath, or, three times real fast? 

[babotika]

Actually Speedbird needed a whopping 4000ft RVR for the ILS on either 24s, the 1200/2400 are other aircraft and/or RVR reports by ATC.

Makes me wonder why the minimums are so high compared to, say, Air Canada. Would be interesting to find out.

S.

[The Hoffspatcher]

BAW has a CAA operating certificate, the JAR/non FAA stuff is generally more stringent than the US or Canadian regs - eg my Jepp YYZ ground chart says for takeoff NWA (FAA OpSpecs) are authorized RVR 1600 or 1/4sm, Virgin RVR 1300 or 1/2sm while BAW is only authorized RVR 6,000 or more.

UAL can go down to 200ft or 75m RVR for full Cat III autoland