Colour Codes
 

Hopefully not too nerdy a question but any reason that the colour codes blu through red are all "standard" but ylo is subdivided into 1 (500'/2500m)and 2 (300'/1600m)?

Can't be as simple as running out of acceptable colours is it?

Don't forget black, as in 'who's blacked the bog?'.

You need a QFI to answer that one. I think it may have been because Yellow on it's own didn't show whether it was suitable for un-rated studes to fly. Or something like that.

And yes, it is a bit nerdy.

BEags will know.

Courtney, you just made me spill my cuppa....

Black indicates the closure of the runway but is not a weather state indicator.... But thanks for the reminder. So that's another colour used up😉

Sorry for the nerdiness Courtney especially on a Sunday......I'm just trying to keep busy waiting for this afternoons rugger to start

Codes
 

There were different shades of black according to closed for crosswind blocked flooded or lack of emergency services

How about Green/Master Green instrument ratings?

More important, why can the fixed wing DH not now be 100ft since instrumentation and performance of modern ac is so much better. I would have been quite happy to fly to 100ft DH in the F3 on a HUD approach if the PAR/ILS was cleared. Maybe Master Greens should be allowed to use a 100ft DH?

I'm sure we all remember when the Y1/Y2 was got rid of by the RAF and then re-intoduced due to popular demand. I believe that it gives a simple indication of when the weather if fit for Green Cards or White Cards. When you are busy in a single seater conducting a mission it is a simple, unambiguous way of receiving the weather.

Me too! :ok:

No difference between wx limits between G and MG. 200' will do. What about White Rats?

I don't know whether it's the same today, but those who only held White Ratings used to have to add 200 ft to the calculated DH.

The minimum DH was 200 ft, so the minimum White Rated DH was 400 ft. In YLO1, with a 500 ft minimum ceiling, no problemo. But with YLO2 having a 300 ft minimum ceiling, if it was OVC a White Rated pilot couldn't get in.

Hence a rule of thumb that YLO1 and better was OK for White Rated mates, whilst YLO2 was OK for G/MG - the subdivision of YLO was very useful.

I knew you would know, BEags.

Oh, and before anyone accidentally gets the wrong impression, I didn't mean "It's nerdy so ask BEags". I meant "BEags will know and yes it is a bit nerdy", if you see what I mean. :ok:

Beagle a nerd? Never. I've been left nearly twenty years since and even I knew the answer. :E

As well as G , MG, and white, there was the blue instrument rating, printed on pale blue card.

" Hold this card up to the sky. If the card and the sky match, you are qualified to fly."

No snags, Courtney me old!

Incidentally, another gotcha of the colour code system is that it in the UK and a few other nations it refers to the base of cloud with 3/8 or more cover, whereas pretty well everyone else uses a 'ceiling' of 5/8 or more...... This can sucker you, as I once found out in my brief F-4 time when leading a pair back visually to WTM. There'd been a little low cloud on departure, but not a lot and we were thus YLO. On recovery, the cloud was considerably more developed and schneebling to avoid the Mendelsham mast wasn't much fun, neither was groping around the circuit after the break.... In retrospect a pairs GCA would probably have saved time, but hey, weren't we supposed to be punchy fighter drivers.....:hmm:

Single seat drivers rarely have the option of listening out for ATIS and asking for the full weather on RTB made one sound like a trucky. But why the UK aerodrome colour state system sticks with 3/8 or more seems strange - it seems tantamount to crying 'Wolf' when conditions aren't actually as bad as they sound...

Blame the RN
 

It's a Navy thing - they sub-divided YLO into the 2 we have now.

All that happened, is they got things their way.

And just to be totally nerdy, black and white are not actually colours... :8

Sorry, attack of stupidity; I meant W and G/MG.

unclenelli,

I think that you will find that a long time ago the RAF and FAA used Y1 and Y2. Some time late 70s early 80s the RAF decided to go to Yellow. A few years later we saw the error of our ways. It was one of the few things the RN got right when concerned with aviation.

Fight's On!