The BLEU films were shown as routine to all courses at Shinfield. Very very impressive ......... gasps from the audience as, at last, the runway was seen.
However I confess to being somewhat of a Luddite regarding transmissometers and Laser Cloud Base Recorders as the way to go. However, that ship has sailed and the future started 30 years ago.
I fear that in my case the perfect is the enemy of the good, and the modern standards for almost everything are "just good enough, and the lowest tender".
Every year the Met Office held a C and P Met O Conference ........ also a fair number at SPSO level and a few of the great and the good with THIS YEAR'S GREAT IDEA.. In my opinion PSO level is what really drives an organisation: young enough to remember what it was like, old enough to be wise, senior enough to push through reform. The Conference dealing with The Last Days of the Observer had the Director of Ops preaching the Gospel of transmissometers and Laser Cloud Base Recorders on every airfield, military and civil. I was senior enough to dare to be outspoken. Big White Chief in Red, as his face grew increasingly red.
"Please sir how many of each instrument would you use?"
"One of each!"
"Where would you put them?
"Probably near the threshold, in consultation"
"Which threshold?"
"Possibly one at each if needs be"
"A lot of airfields have a second runway"
"How about cloud amount in broken low cloud?
"Where would you put transmissometers?
"LB, its a matter of economy ........... a few instruments will pay for themselves many times over if we do not use observers."
[LB senses that his next posting might be Belfast or Stanley].
"Thank you". BOLLOCKS
There is no substitute for the trained, long-serving and diligent observer. He/she knows where fog lurks in the dips, knows where a little uplift will magic 4/8 very low stratus in no time at all, and is willing to nip upstairs to ATC for a better look. ATC in turn will delight in seeing a hazard before the observer.
To summarise, I know when I am beaten. If the service is good enough for the customer, and/or is all the customer is willing to pay for, that is the way to go.
Nostalgia is not what it used to be.
next: LB invents WFH