[QUOTE=Mr Approach;11556387]A couple of issues perhaps worth commenting on:
1. Stop Bars - these are a great mitigator of the single point of failure, pilots lining up due to radio misunderstandings, however:
In Australia, they are used without much thought for the consequences on aircraft flow (see comments about line up behind). This means they enhance safety but reduce efficiency.
The FAA took the concept but automated it so that the basic rule is correct, do not line up when the stop lights are red, but the stop lights operate off the A/SMGCS (we have this installed in MEL. SYD, BNE and PER), they do not require a controller to press a button. This means that the stop bars are only red when the A/SMGCS detects RWY activity. The system can also warn a pilot on final of RWY activity by turning the approach lighting red!
2. Cross wind limits - Australia is non-compliant with the ICAO 15 Kt crosswind limit, allowing RWY nomination with a 20 kt crosswind, however:
This is only an issue if airports hang onto, or are forced to hang onto (Sydney) the "old-fashioned" idea that there should be an into wind runway.
By this I mean that ATC can therefore nominate a runway with a lesser crosswind, because there is one! In Sydney and Melbourne, this often reduces the airports to single-runway operations, absolutely cruelling their efficiency.
Brisbane smartly got rid of their cross-wind runway when the parallel 01L/19R was opened, hence no runway nomination problems. (Except during nighttime low wind conditions, but that is another subject)
So, we are safe, but very inefficient. The airports and Airservices management don't care, because all of those aircraft will land and take-off anyway, so they get their money.
Who suffers? Airline bottom-lines, pilots, ATC's running holding patterns, the environment as more fuel gets burned - but, hey, who cares?
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What an odd concept. Here in Europe/USA a pilot has aircraft Manufacturers/ Company performance limits to work with. And of course weather minima appropriate to the landing aids/weather conditions at the time. ATC does not stop me starting an Approach due to some ATC dictat.
Also my last Type had a dry X Wind limit of 35K gusting 40, so I would be stopped from landing in Sydney if the X Wind was 20kts> ?