This happens all the time here. East half of the airport, including the
ASOS, is 0/0. West half is clear and a million.. No contact approach
allowed. Better off to do an instrument approach and just break it off
as soon as you receive the clearance. Ask for the full approach if it
will take you near or over the airport and then just break off and land
if you can get an approach and landing clearance. Nothing says you have
to actually go out and do the approach.




Paul Tomblin wrote:
On the most recent Pilots Audio Update, the narrator was talking about a
time when fog covered half the airport, but he could see the runway he was
going to land on, but because the control tower was on the foggy half of
the airport, they wouldn't approve a visual approach. He was being
vectored all around, and thought it ironic that he never lost sight of the
runway. Could he had gotten a contact approach if he'd asked for it?