Actual Time in Sacramento

On 12/15/2005 10:51, Robert M. Gary wrote:

Lots of it. I"m based in Cameron Park where the wx is clear. I shoot
approachs all morning into Mather and Exec when its low. Even though
they are reporting 1/4SM and 000VV I can usually get in about 70% of
the time (with about 15 minutes between attempts). The lesson here is
that if you shoot the approach and see nothing, just try it again. By
the time you get down to 100 AGL you can almost always see the runway.

But at 100 AGL, aren't you below minimums? I know you can go to 100AGL
once you see the Red Bars, but neither of those airports have them (they
both have MALSR, right? - which doesn't have Red Bars).

If you pick up the rabbit at 200 you're pretty much good to go as long
as you have 1/2 vis. Usually you do. Tower's visibility is MUCH
different than your actual visibility.

Are you sure about that? According to my understanding, the rabbit is
not part of the runway environment, and is not enough to allow you to
proceed below minimums. You need to have one of the various runway
environment pieces called-out in the regs. What am I missing?

(Note: I'm flexing my 'I just passed the test' muscle without much
real IFR experience, so be gentle with me ;-) )

Of course, 0-0 doesn't stop you from shooting the approach by any
means - it just makes an engine failure a lot more serious ;-\

I really don't know how I feel about that, to be honest with you,
so I've avoided it.



Fog can be strange. I took off out of Exec last winter with 1/8SM
000VV. I could only see 1 center line strip down. However, after I took
off, I never lost sight of the runway, even at 1000 feet. It was very
easy to see down through the fog, just hard to see through it
horizontally.

-Robert



--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Sacramento, CA