Originally Posted by
EastCoaster
Moggiee,
Please accept my apologies, you are of course correct, the height limitations on the approaches are of course DH.
But from my perspective on the ground, there wouldn't be much point in you commencing an approach if the cloud base was below the DH minimum for the category of approach that you are flying - thereby precluding the probability of achieving the visual cues required to complete a landing.
As a pilot I would expect to give it a go if the weather was legal - but I have also in the past told my employer (over the radio) to forget it when they tried to order me to "have a go" at a Cat I ILS when the RVR was 200m!
If I didn't at least try once when it was legal then I would expect my employer to be (rightly) upset. Likewise, they can have no complaints if I refuse to fly one when it is below minima.
As for getting the required visual references, you don't actually have to be able to see the runway (of course) just things such as runway lights, threshold lighting, elements of the approach lighting and so you have a reasonable chance of seeing enough references if you have the required RVR. Remember, at Cat I DH you are only looking down through about 80-100m of cloud (allowing for slant ranges) whereas the minimum horizontal RVR is 550m - that actually gives quite a good chance of seeing some approach lights.