Corking fun - but why?

[Self Loading Freight]

I popped over to Cork the other day, courtesy of Ryanair (the way things are at the moment, that counts as longhaul). We spent a very long time floating around above Cork, with a diversion to Shannon on the cards, because the place was closed through fog, then open, then closed again. After around 45 minutes, by which time I'd learned not to read threads on Pprune about Ryanair's fuel policy, you could cut the air in the cabin with a blunt plastic knife. Nobody was happy, at first because they thought they'd have to get to Cork from Shannon on the ground, but latterly because it was clear that we'd been shuttling around for far too long.
At this point the captain told the cabin crew to announce we were going to land for sure this time. Only the destination airport wasn't known -- the crew member concerned had been summoned to the front just before they did the 'ten minutes to landing' PA, and on questioning by the (by now very concerned) passengers they admitted that they still didn't know where. But we were definitely landing in ten minutes.

As it happens, we hit Cork in what looked to the untrained eye like glorious visibility. There was a round of applause in the cabin -- most certainly not because of any greaser, as we went down with a thunk and a half -- and that was that.

So, questions: is ORK really that marginal? Is it lacking suitable aids, if so? And what happened on that flight -- was it a 'get into Cork if we can, or abort to Shannon' approach that meant nobody really knew where we were going until we got there?

Recent events have meant that us SLF are jolly nervous when things don't go according to plan. A bit more information on the PA would really not go amiss.

R

[Tom the Tenor]

Welcome to Cork! I wish I was more technically knowledgeable but I will give it a go until someone more qualified shows up. Winter time at Cork and the Gulfstream brings up the nice, warm moist air from the Atlantic to Cork Airport which is 500 Feet above sea level so we have at the level of the airport some pea soup from the low cloud base whilst the city below has pretty clear visibility. During all of this the IRVR can go up and down so frustratingly it is unbelievable. Cork has a CAT II ILS and, correct me if I am wrong, a 737 will need 350 M visibility at touchdown and it can break your heart to come out of the hold to shoot the ILS once the magic figure of 350 Metres is announced only for it all to fizzle away again down to 325 Metres and then to 275 Metres to be followed by go-around and back to the hold. Staying around in the hold for a good while hoping that visibility will go up and stay up is, I guess, what the Ryanair flight crew on your aeroplane were hoping for to happen and your break came and lasted and you all got down! The managers at Cork say that a CAT III ILS is not needed as the diversion rate now compared to when there was just a CAT I ILS has been cut dramatically. Not exactly sure of the figures. I have a question myself about any future installation of CAT III at Cork - bearing in mind how close the terminal and cargo area is to runway 17/35 could a CAT III work successfully? Also, it must be cheaper for Ryanair and all the airlines to hang around at Cork as long as possible rather than have the diverted aeroplane sit on the ground at Shannon or Farranfore (Kerry) for 2 hours or more to wait for bussed up passengers. Hope this helps, sorry for not being more technical in my reply.

[NextLeftAndCallGround]

Not really on topic I know but, I don't think there's very much difference between the ground equipment needed for CAT II and CAT III but things like terrain profile in the 'undershoot' may prevent an ILS being used for CAT III.

[Self Loading Freight]

Thanks, everyone. I know how much weather there is around there, thanks (as mentioned) to the Gulf Stream, the Atlantic and the infamous rain magnets embedded in the Emerald Isle (hence the name, after all). I was just a bit surprised that something like the shiny new 737-800 I was in -- one of the ones that Mr O'Leary shouldn't have bought, even with that peculiar write-down policy -- was still so dependent on good visibility.

R