Latest point for obtaining landing clearance?
Went around yesterday in good weather (and what I saw was a clear runway), because the tower bunny didn't issue a landing clearance in time. Where I exactly was doesn't matter for the purpose, but was within SE Asia.
We passed the OM on a LLZ and Tower said to expect a late landing clearance - par for the norm. We broke out right at the minima and a moment later my FO told her we were on short final. Tower said nothing. At 100ft there was a 2 sec "...er...." on Tower freq and that was it. At 50ft over the threshold I gave it away because the landing manoever (for which we needed to be cleared) begins at 50ft. At about 100ft on GA she issued our landing clearance!
The ****'s hit the fan because local ATC says a clearance only needs to be issued prior to touchdown. I countered by arguing that the country is an ICAO signatory, and that also there is no stated proviso for this deviation both in the Jepps or their own AIP.
My main concern of course was if I hit something I didn't see or know about, AND without a landing clearance.
My ICAO references are old and of course these buggers don't have any around here, but any ATCOs here with some thoughts and maybe an up to date ICAO ref? I recall a number of years ago at the old Kai Tak in HKG the Tower warning us of a VERY late clearance (which we subsequently obtained at 30ft), but that was issued by a bloke who knew exactly what the hell he was doing and kept us well informed. There was no stink afterwards so we just passed Go and told him to keep the $200.
Any ATCer inputs appreciated.
Thanks,
Slash