VOR approach SMO

On Jul 23, 5:07 pm, "pgbnh" wrote:
I think all but one of the posters have missed the fact that the MDA is not
1120 but 680. If indeed the vis was 3 miles, then the runway should have
been in sight from the MDA of 680 feet about a mile OUTSIDE of Culve.
(Remember what you can do once you have the runway in sight????) At which
point it's not a particularly big deal to lose 500 feet to land on the
numbers. Maybe even crossing Culve at 3-400 feet agl

Please, tell me how you read the plate in a way that you can cross
CULVE below 1120 when you don't have the airport in sight?
Note I am not an IA pilot, but I really want to understand this. My
reading of the plate is:

Cross CULVE at or above 1120. If you are DME equipped and radar, you
can then descend to 680. Otherwise you gotta remain at 1120. If you
get to the VOR before seeing the airport, you execute missed.

Now if the conditions are 800 overcast 3mi, how can you see the
airport before hitting CULVE unless you are below the crossing
restriction?