Low Visibility Operations

[Jonas Kuster]

It's again this time of the year where the visibility may be impaired by humidity, also known as fog ... or was it mist? Although reduced visibility is mainly an issue in the morning hours, it can also occur in the evenings and thus affect the prime time on VATSIM. Depending on the weather conditions, fog might affect flight operations during multiple days in a row. So maybe your next session will be affected.

Here is a selection of resources to learn more about flight operations in low visibility.

• The SOP vACC Switzerland provides the applicable procedures when controlling on a Swiss airport (link valid for registered controllers).
• Skybrary has produced an article about Low Visibility Operations explaining the potential hazards and proposals for best practice.
• An explanation about the different types of Fog can be found on Skybrary as well.
• All terms related to METAR and TAF are listed in a handy reference about flight weather, provided by MeteoSchweiz. This document is always recommended for a brush-up of METAR abbreviations. The link is also available on the atc training docs page on our website.
• For pilots, Visual References play an important role in decision making an flight preparation.

Do you know any other sources related to Low Visibility Operations?
Do you know which airports in Switzerland use Low Visibility Operations and why some don't?
Have you ever operated in Low Visibility? What was your experience?

Feel free to discuss and ask questions.

[Lars Hartmann]

Have you ever operated in Low Visibility? What was your experience?

I`ve only had this situation ones, at LFSB. I saw that the Visibility was very low, So I knew that LVP should be used. I focused on the values from the SOP. And there where also some stuff, I have never seen in a Metar before, but with help from Skybrary's Metar Guide, I could find out what they ment. For Example those Letters wich show if the RVR is increasing (U) or decreasing (D) But at always it was quite fun

Regards
Lars