You're not in sight from the tower...

Teller1900

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"RVR 800 touchdown, 600 midpoint, 600 rollout, you're not in sight from the tower. Runway 23R you're clear for takeoff, report airborne."

Fun morning, yesterday morning. I wish I could have taken pictures, but of course I forgot my camera. As we were sitting at the gate waiting for the RVR to hit 600, two gates away the only thing that was visible was the wingtip position light of a 737. The rest of plane was lost in the ether. I heard a Piaggio taxi by the gate on Alpha, but apparently he was more than 600 feet away because it was just disembodied engine noise.

Taxiing was an experience. The RVR was too low on 23L (the closer runway), so we had to taxi all the way around to 23R. The were using their standardized low vis taxi routes, but it still required very short taxi clearances with reports every time we took a turn. They very much needed ASDE-X yesterday. And the three planes that diverted to ORF while we were holding short very much needed CAT III with auto-land.

This was one of those fog layers that's only about 400-500 feet thick, but that 400 feet is serious about what it does. The tops of the buildings in downtown RDU, RIC, and ORF were all visable above the layer of cotton; even some radio and TV towers were fighting their way out of the blanket that was covering the mid Atlantic for as far as we could see. Whatever these buildings and antenas were built on, though, was up to the imagination. This was a fun morning to fly.
 

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No pics? I mean, I saw it from the ground :eek: but what did it look like from the sky? :)


and, uh, what's RVR? :redface:
 
No pics? I mean, I saw it from the ground :eek: but what did it look like from the sky? :)


and, uh, what's RVR? :redface:

Unfortunately, no. All I had was my cell phone, which couldn't even begin to do it justice.

RVR = Runway Visual Range. Basically how far (in feet) you can see down the runway from the reporting point.
 
We've had some fun in the fog around Detroit too, I had a landing with touchdown RVR 6000, midpoint 500, rollout 1000. Then the other day right before sunrise get cleared for the visual appch, airport easily in sight 20 miles out. By touchdown it was P6000/800/1000. I think the tops were somewhere around 20' AGL.
 
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