In article ,
Jose wrote:


Is there any official weather that is not available at all to ATC?

I don't know, but in the following hypothetical case (that you could I
suppose argue would never happen) I can see it.

Fred is a certified weather observer, but the station is officially
closed. Fred is also Susan's husband, and Susan is flying back from
Kalahachee and getting ready to land at the small airstrip near their
home. So Fred goes down to wherever he can make certifiable weather
observations, looks out the window, and makes a certifiable (but not
certified) observation, which he relays to Susan on the ham radio. (As
it turns out they are both licensed amateur radio operators, so the
transmission is perfectly legal). Susan forwards this observation to
ATC and asks for a contact approach. Donna at ATC says fine and clears
Susan for the contact approach.

Something Goes Wrong.

In the subsequent investigation, the FAA throws the book at Fred, Susan,
and Donna, claiming that the contact approach should not have been
requested or granted, the observation wasn't "official", wasn't
available to ATC, and all that rot.

What sticks?

I think that would depend a lot on what the "something" is that went
wrong. If Susan ran out of fuel I doubt that the weather would even
come into play.


Does it matter that the weather at the time was in fact CAVU?


Probably. The devil is always in the details.

But it certainly is an interesting scenario.

rg