Norfolk Island suffers from notorious fog. Being a small island the fog often rolls in at short notice closing the airport while aircraft are mid flight from Australia or New Zealand. The disappointed passengers are often told they need to turn back and try tomorrow.
However Norfolk Island’s airport is very primitive and only suited to clear weather flying. Nervous flyers should drink their duty free before boarding. Some pilots will not fly to Norfolk Island due to its lack of emergency services and inadequate night time lighting. Norfolk Island's limited airline traffic means it can not justify sophisticated facilities.
"It's a piece of rock that sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean subject to sea fog, and if a plane cannot land it's in deep trouble. Ely said that Flight West, the main Australian carrier serving Norfolk Island racked up $40,000 in costs a month due to flights that could not land and had to return to Australia or New Zealand.
The spin variables between ATSB and CASA reports are mind blowing, that's to be expected; but not really expected from the BoM. The temperature and dew point are very close, the wind is easing and there are clear indications of a bad patch approaching; with NLK being as fog prone as it is makes me wonder why there was no 'FG Prob' on the TAF, or a TEMPO or even an INTER for the later period of the 0700 TAF. The cloud base and visibility are fluctuating, the cloud is being called deteriorating between 1300' and 500' throughout the period. Was this simply the BoM not forecasting, but relaying the automatic information to allow the pilot to do the forecast?
It is also intriguing that no one has made a fuel study using SGR and the grid winds, effective TAS at LRC on a Northerly heading to NWWW seems to have been neglected.
0545 TAF OK. - NO PROB FOG ??
0700 METAR - Not received (9999 FEW 008).
0730 METAR - Not received (9999 FEW 006).
0739 SPECI - Not received (9999 OVC 013).
0800 TAFOR - Not received AMEND (7000 SCT 005).
0801 received the 0630 METAR (9999 FEW 006). *Reported as 6000'.
* Issue time questioned, expected 0800 METAR??
0802 received 0800 SPECI (9999 OVC 011).
0803 – NADI HAND OFF.
0830 SPECI – Not received (9999 SCT 005). with NADI.
0841 –
Δ DOLSI – and Auckland contact. BINGO 1. No Met requested or offered??
0856 SPECI - Not received (9999 SCT 005). BINGO 2. with AUK. Ditto Met.
0900 METAR - Not received (8000 SCT 005).
0902 SPECI - (7000 SCT 005).
0925 SPECI - Not received (6000 SCT 005).
0928 – Contact NLK.
0940 TOD.
Climate statistics for Australian locations
Norfolk Is to beat fog with $15 billion GPS - Computerworld
Recommendation R20000040