Originally Posted by
Gantless
I've often wondered what it means to be certified for instrument flight rules if the planes can't land in fog! I once flew PUB-DEN and the plane wouldn't take off because of fog in Denver. This was over the holidays and caused massive IRROPS. Isn't the point of IFR to be able to land WITHOUT visibility and rely only on the instruments?
Although our United pilots who regularly contribute can add their technical knowledge, even UA's expert flight officers and recent equipment need a certain, minimum runway visual range to be "legal" with UA's procedures for the type of aircraft, including on an ILS approach.
Going into LAX on 11/3 at 7:05 a.m., we needed 600' RVR midfield to be "legal". We had 700' on the 24s, although 25L had 900 and SoCal approach would have switched us over to 25L if the 24s had been below the min. req'd by United. As has been observed by others, LAX/SAN have seen very low-level ground fog the last few days.