Chaps and Chapesses,. .A controller saying "Clear to land"-- What does it mean?? Obviously quite a few of you on this thread have no idea.
It does not make the slightest difference if it is the Wild West, GAAP (surprising as it may seem to some we even have multiple runway airports in the east) YSBK, EGLL or KJFK, the responsibilities and relationships of the pilot in command and the air traffic controller do not change.
If you bother to delve into the rules and regs., the MATS manual, blah blah, you will find that the final responsibility ALWAYS rests with the pilot in command.
Further more, a runway does NOT even have to be clear for a controller to issue a landing clearance.
Read all about it, but a plain English version is: The controller must have a reasonable expectation that the runway will be available at the time you arrive. That is all.
The rest is up to the pilot in command.
I am quite certain that this statement will raise a howl of protest from the ignoratii, but equally, I hope that at least some of you will be prompted to actually verify for yourselves that the statement is correct.
Thus, something like KLAX TWR to QF XX ---" UA 737 short final, AA 767 3 miles ahead of you for 25L, clear to land 25L"--- it's common, legal, practical, ICAO and all those good things, and we know what it means.
And it does happen in Sydney, when things get tight,(not quite the KLAX version, but receiving a landing clearance when the preceeding aircraft is still on the runway) and missed approaches do result. This is the price of achieving high movement rates, it happens world wide.
How many of you in the wild west really know what "cleared to land menas" means??
Ardmore, in New Zealand now has more movements than ANY GA airport in Australia,thanks to all the training contracts where Massey and others have beaten Australia out, there is a wonderful variety of versions of the "english" language, etc etc, AND NO TOWER, not even for a few hours a day.
Just a dammed good UNICOM, and a lot of pilots who have been taught good circuit discipline, and stick to it, something that seems to be missing in the "wild west".
Tootle pip!!
PS Gaunty,
Did you ever make it to a Great Eastern Fly-In at Evans Head. Every thing from powered parachutes and motor gliders through to the odd Sea Fury or Boomerang, over a 1000 movements on a peak day, three runways in a triangle, and guess what, no tower, not even a Unicom.
Just a large number of pilots using the brains God gave them, and simple common sense.