Lo Vis Procs LHR
I wonder if any LHR controllers would let me know what criteria are used for instituting Lo Vis Procs. Is it based on Pilot Reps or on the Met man?
No criticism intended of the guys on duty, but I operated into LHR last friday evening (20th Dec) and ended up holding for some 38 minutes. It didn't cause me any embarrassment because I had loaded extra fuel in anticipation. The weather was 2000m in Mist, Bkn/200 and Ovc/400 and Lo Vis Procs in force. The point is that most pilots would agree that in these conditions, a successful Cat One approach is pretty well guaranteed, we actually saw the lights at 300 ft aal. The LVP's had slowed the flow rate down considerably and caused unnecessary holding in my opinion. As a result a number of my passengers missed their onward longhaul connections.
My suggestion would be to base LVP's on pilot reports as well as the Met. It might well result in one or two aircraft having to go around on the odd occasion, but might save a lot of diversions, increased cost to the airlines and of course inconvenience to the travelling public.
ATB, PTC