1/4 Mile Forward Visibility

[737Driver]

Cool gadget, that HUD. Wish we had them. I believe Alaska uses them also.

[427TJ]

Yes, Alaska has HUDs on the captain's side. We can go down to 600 RVR (ILS Category IIIa/autoland) at Seattle. 600/600/Required, as a matter of fact. 600 feet runway visual range at touchdown, 600 midfield, "Required" at the rollout end. "Required" means that there has to be an operable Transmissometer (visibility measurement device) but no visual range value is required for rollout so zero is acceptable for the rollout value. Our minimum vis for takeoff is 300 RVR at Seattle and that's hand-flown. There is no such thing as an autopilot takeoff. Yet. Once they figure that out--and people will still be willing to get on airliners--Mark and I are out of a job!

Yeah, the first time you fly a CatIIIa down to "mins" it's an eye-opener but then they become routine. When the vis is that bad the winds are calm--or very light--so the landing is a non-event. The runway is straight ahead so it appears out of the fog right where you want it to be. In high crosswinds and low ceilings (not fog) you rock and roll down final approach and because the jet is "crabbed" into the wind, sometimes 15-20 degrees off, you have to look for the runway at one side of your windscreen or the other as you emerge from the clouds. Big fun!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runway_visual_range

[BARN FIND]

Just outa curiosity, what was the RVR on that approach?

[737Driver]

Mine was 100 overcast with the RVR 1,000 variable to 3,000.