Good to see all the black and whiters here, specially those of you posting from the comfort of your (corporate) armchair. A fleet manager of mine once told me that the ops manual is written in black and white, but the world isn't black and white. He said he would like to see the principle of the SOP observed, if not the letter. Perhaps this pilot's judgement was that in the conditions he could return to the field visually within 26 minutes without jeopardising anyone's safety.
An example of blind adherance to the rules; a busy U.K. regional airport with the main runway being resurfaced. A notam is issued stating that a section of about 60 meters in the middle of the runway has not yet been grooved and therefore should be considered slippery when wet. Some bright spark (base captain I believe) from a well known U.K. based regional operator decides that the runway must be treated as slippery when wet is announced on the atis which precludes it's turboprop aircraft from landing on it with any more than a 5 knot crosswind. So all the other airlines (including B.A.) continue to land on it after rain whilst the other airline causes minor mayhem by insisting on landing and departing from the cross runway which has no approach aids. Were the rest of us risking our passengers and our own lives or were we just making a sensible interpretation of the rules.
Of course if you don't want pilots to think at all then just punish us for all infractions of the rules/SOPs/Air Navigation Orders and see where we end up.
Last edited by TDK mk2; 1st May 2011 at 07:55.