Merry Christmas, Mudspike!
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Merry Christmas all!
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Happy Yuletide!
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Merry Christmas!
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Merry Chirstmas Mudspike!
Happy Yule Log. Not “log” in the sense you think I mean…I mean…I don’t have a log…
Getting ready to go flying this fine Christmas night. Poured rain on my entire drive in…LOL…like I must have been stuck under a cell for the entire drive…and 70-some degrees. Crazy…
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This is what an approach looks like when the RVR drops below minimums prior to the marker. 
Then, you wait until the approach controller says the magic words (in our case “1800 touchdown, 1800 mid…”)…and then you hope he doesn’t say another word until you hit the marker. (Once inside the marker, you can legally continue the approach even if the RVR drops below minimums…odd…but true…)
KCLT 260630Z 00000KT 1/2SM R18C/1400V2600FT FG VV001 17/16 A3026 RMK AO2 $
Nice…quick Christmas flight… I’ll take it…
Cue all the Cat IIIc airline pilots that can land with 700 RVR…LOL… They “have the technology”…
BeachAV8R
Can you translate “1800 touchdown, 1800 mid” for us?
Edit: and I’m glad you’re home safe!
Oops…sorrry. Yeah, that is just referring to the visibility requirement for the landing approach in terms measured by the runway visual range equipment (RVR). Not all runways/airports have RVR, but when they are up and running, they are controlling for whether or not you can shoot the approach. For airports without RVR, visibility is given in statute miles (ie: 1 mile, 1/2 mile, 2 miles, etc.).
So coming in last night, the controller was giving us RVR reports for the three active runways at Charlotte - and all were down around 1200RVR to 800RVR (below minimums).
http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1513/00078IL36R.PDF
See the 927 (height above touchdown) and 18 = 1800 RVR. 200 is the decision height (radar altimeter) and the parenthesis are the military minimums (200 DH and 1/2 mile).
So when you arrive in the terminal area, and the RVR is below the published minimums, you are not legal to commence the approach. Last night, the approach controller (we were the only airplane at 1AM or whatever) was very helpful in giving us some delaying vectors while continuously updating us on the RVR for all three runways. It was up and down so rapidly that we only had to wait about 10 minutes and it popped up. The controllers are great and know that once we meet the minimums, they usually stop giving RVR readouts until we get to the marker so that we don’t have to break off the approach. Once inside the marker, we got an RVR report of 1400, but it didn’t matter, we were inside the marker. On short final, we probably caught the runway at 3/4 of a mile and at DH - so the RVR equipment was sitting in the worst of it along the runway.
Despite all that - it isn’t stressful in the least - conditions were calm and we had so much gas we could have done that for an hour and a half before proceeding to our alternate - which had a ceiling of 500’ and 7 miles vis (you continuously monitor your alternate weather for obvious reasons…).
Hope that helps…
EDIT - And if you are lucky enough to fly an airliner with Cat II or III capability (autoland type stuff)…the minimums can go crazy low…like as in nothing…
BeachAV8R
A bit late, but Happy Holidays everyone!
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YO HO HO 
Merry christmas chums
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