Skyhigh I believe there are two definitions out there depending if you have a JAR ops AOC or the old CAA one.
The old CAA one is that you have to be visual with the ground and know where you are. ie spitoons ICAO
And the JAR one is that you have to have the point of arrival visual at all times.
I haven't seen the original JAR ops reference just the ops manual changes after converting the AOC. or if its best practise now that won't get by the flight ops inspectors unless its included.
I did ask but you always loose the point of arrival if you join on the downwind or can we start doing oval circuits rolling out at 500ft. Ok I will take that as a no then
It seems the JAR ops is designed on the premiss that that the only place you are going to take a visual from is from a base position coming off vectors. Our operation was mainly into regional fields with low traffic loads and procedural/radar approach in class G. So alot of the time it was normal to take a visual from 10-20 miles from any direction or cancel IFR . It was debated for a couple of days then everyone forgot about it and continued to take visuals as per before.
Edited to add that everyone should be JAR ops AOC now. The only time this issue has come to light for me during day to day ops was with a new FO out of Oxford. But as he was technically correct there wasn't any discussion from me about it. He was quite correct that a lighthouse is not a runway. The fact the lighthouse was there before the runway was built is neither here nor there.