Originally Posted by
Pulser
So to sum it up, one has to differentiate between:
- Actual weather conditions
- Operation CAT in force (determined by ATC), which would normally be determined to barely cover the actual weather conditions, as higher CATs could exclude operators with more basic equipment and would reduce traffic throughput
In the FAA system ATC advises air crew what the current weather is and it is up to the crew to determine if they can land and what level of approach to use. The airport has certain low visibility procedures to put in place as the RVR goes down. But the reality is for me on a 744/748, if the weather is below CAT 1 and the approach is approved to CAT III I'll shot it as a CAT III. We autoland out of both a CAT II and CAT III so why complicate the approach looking for lights at 100 feet.