Originally Posted by
Andy Mayes
From a UK ATC point of view, yes you can, RVR 800m is the cut off for Visual Approaches.
ATC will not approve a Visual Approach when the RVR is less than 800m, if the pilot did request so then ATC should inform the pilot that this type of approach is unavailable and request the pilot's intentions.
I have often had pilots cancel IFR and go VFR to 'cut the corner'.
I think you are referring to the UK "absolute minima" which was abolished fairly recently, where a pilot would be reminded of the absolute minima for the approach and warned that he would be reported if he continued the approach, if the visibility was below the absolute minima.
Interestingly I was clearing VFR traffic to land in 175m IRVR a few weeks ago. There was extensive low level radiation fog to the East of the runway which covered the forward scatter meters (IRVR sensors), but the runway itself was out of the fog. First time I have seen these conditions in almost forty years of controlling!