Originally Posted by
Lead Balloon
C’mon, TNIP. We know best. As the reporter commented in the REPCON at the link at #66:If only the FAA and air travellers in the USA had the benefit of the reporter’s insights.
(I’ve never heard the phrase “cleared the option” in 30 plus years of flying in and out of GAAP/“Metropolitan Class D” i.e. GAAP and Class C aerodromes in Australia. I would have queried it and will query it immediately, as I have no idea what it means. I’ll make a guess and suggest that it’s used by the ADF - like cleared to land “check wheels” - and is working its way by osmosis to civvy ops?)
No, not a RAAF thing. It was introduced into the joint civvie/MATS and AIP in the late 1990s. In my humble experience in both worlds, it is usually only used when requested by the pilot, and cleared to do so when traffic conditions permit. You're not going to let someone do whatever runway activity they want in a busy circuit.