"Report Airfield in Sight"

[pulse1]

A friend of mine recently passed his GFT but was criticised by the examiner for reporting the field in sight before he could actually see the runway.
At this particular airfield you can see the aerodrome from 8 miles away on a good day and I have always tended to report early because I sense that Radar are keen to pass you on to the Tower asap. Have I been doing it wrong all these years? If the examiner is correct, why isn't the correct terminology "Report runway in sight"?

Edited to add that my CAP 413 says "Report aerodrome in sight".

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

I would report as soon as I can be sure that it is the airfield that I have in sight. For a familiar field this could be a landmark on the field or the general outline. Otherwise, the runway itself is usually the best indication.
On a few occasions I have been in the overhead before reporting field in sight!

[fireflybob]

I think the examiner is being pedantic but it depends a bit on the context. The essential question really is are you happy you can navigate visually to the airfield. So in certain conditions if it's gin clear and you are familiar with the environment then I see no problem with anticipating the field in sight call. On the other hand in marginal conditions and/or lack of local knowledge I might actually delay the call since I might need some radar back up to be absolutely sure!

In summary, it all depends.

[Mike Cross]

Going to Yeovilton on a nice clear day I was asked to report "aerodrome in sight". I replied "confirm aerodrome in sight, 15 miles to run", which was, I think, not what he wanted to hear. The runway was very visible from 15nm out on the extended centreline.;)

At 80 kt actually getting to short final took a little longer.

[Dave Gittins]

This sounds like a subject where pedants of one brand or another could interpret the message as meaning almost anything.

I remember one day with such good visibilty ('bout 3 years ago) when as I climbed out of Goodwood I could see the BAT Tower at Woking and could thus have fairly legitimately said "Fairoaks in sight".

I rather doubt that would have helped me or anybody else too much as I had about 30 miles to go.

Surely the principle is that either :

you tell your FIS provider that you have your destination field in sight and therefore you would like to talk to them now so you can start getting acquainted with the visual circuit traffic you are going to join

or else

you are telling somebody with whom you already have contact that you have positivly identified the location of their airfield and thus have a fighting chance of crossing the right end of the runway (if that is your intention) or of identifying and avoiding traffic if it is described as being in a particular location (such as "short finals" or "in the climbout").

Isn't it about common sense and enhancing safety ?

DGG