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Old 3rd Jun 2004, 11:18
  #11 (permalink)  
eyeinthesky
 
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From my dim memory of aerodrome licensing issues at CATC, I think you are getting confused.

The Cleared and Graded area is an area surrounding the runway strip which is relatively free of obstacles which could majorly damage an aircraft (i.e. obstacles must be frangible), and the surface is relatively smooth. A cleared and graded area is REQUIRED for an instrument runway but not for a visual runway.

The Localiser Sensitive Area is a defined area within which vehicles and aircraft must not be when the ILS is being used for precision approaches below a certain distance or height in certain weather conditions. This is because their presence can affect the electronic signals and give spurious instrument indications. This is a bad idea if you are using those indications to get 300 tonnes of aircraft travelling at 130 kts down to 50ft or less without seeing the runway!

So, an IFR Visual approach will be to an instrument runway which will have a cleared and graded area. There will be no need to protect the Localiser Sensitive Area as the ILS is not being used for guidance. The mark one eyeball is doing that.
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