Runway Visual Range
 

Hi,
I would like to know what is difference between the ground visibility that has the word RVR in front and the one that does not in the minimum landing section on the approach chart. For example, RVR 1/2 or 24 and 1/2, do they mean the same thing for precision, non precision, and circling approach?
Cheers

RVR is measured by electronic equipment and generally used for precision approaches but can also be published for NPAs. A visibility is just that, someone looking out the window and estimating the vis (simplified).

Viz (or Visibility) is how far you can see a static, unlit object.


Runway Visual Range (RVR) is how much of the runway you can see and takes account of the Runway lighting. This is how you can get a reported Visibility of 150m but the RVR might be 300m or more.

In the old days RVR used to be calculated by having someone stand on/near the runway and count how many runway edge (or centreline) lights they could see - ATC would then multiply that number by the distance between the lights and, hey presto, that was your RVR. Nowadays there are electronic systems to work out the range by shining a light at a receiver and then it works out the equivalent RVR. This is called an IRVR.


As you will be aware each type of approach has it's minimums. For a non-precision (i.e. visual) approach you need the Visibility to be above minimums. For a precision (i.e. vectors to ILS) approach you need the RVR to be above minimums.