Originally Posted by
wiggy
Are you really saying you wouldn't make a certain decision
if say, tower reported wind is significantly outside your and/or your aircraft's crosswind limit ....
so it's a case of "if it looks/feels alright" it is regarded as acceptable to press on and land, regardless of what the tower reports ( and is perhaps on the tapes..?
I can't speak for the others, but I'm saying that my decision to divert, go around or whatnot, is not made on final, based on the ATC reported wind. It will be decided much earlier on, perhaps even before starting the flight.
Because of that, I essentially ignore what the tower reports as the current wind (as part of the landing clearance). By then that information has become largely irrelevant, because I have already made the decision that the wind is within limits, so I'm going to see, and deal with, whatever wind comes my way. And a go-around decision will not be based on absolute crosswind values, but on whether I feel confident I can pull off a safe landing.
The only thing I do when the tower reports the wind on final, is a gross error check to see if it's still more or less the same as what I've heard earlier. I've been in a weird windshear situation where the wind that I had at 1000 feet on downwind, was 180 degrees out from the reported surface wind. That took a bit of mental gymnastics to decide what I was going to do. (And the approach was, well, interesting...)