Devil's in the Details!

Every morning before going to work, I check the METAR and TAFs for every airport I'm supposed to go to that day. If nothing else, it tells me how much I'll have to tighten my seat belt during the day. Day before yesterday, things actually didn't look that bad. Sewark was calling for mostly calm winds, good visibility, and high ceilings all day. Providence was about the same. The one problem, was going to be our first flight, and usually the bastion of good weather on the east coast - Norfolk.

Fog. For the last five days it had been continuous rain, 24 hours a day. Day before yesterday was the first time it had stopped raining, and the fog rolled in thick. We had faced it on the way in the night before with a low RVR landing (more on that another time), but then over night things had really dropped.

When I finished my preflight, I went to the cockpit to start getting ready. We knew the fog was going to be an issue, so before doing anything else I listened to the ATIS.

Wind light and variable, visibility 1/4 mile, fog, indefinite ceilings 100 feet, temp 4, dew point 4, altimeter 30.30. ILS runway 5 in use, landing and departing runway 5.

Alright, that's doable. Call clearance. "Cleared to Newark via the Kiser 1 departure, as filed. Maintain 4,000, expect 1-5 thousand in ten. Departure frequency 125.2, Squawk ####. Runway 5 RVR 1000."

Crap. That's not doable.

"Have you seen any kind of positive trend in the RVR recently?" I ask.

"Negative," the clearance lady says. "The trend I saw was around midnight when this stuff really rolled in."

Well hell. I pull out my 10-9 (airport diagram), knowing full well what it says.

Sure enough, all runways 1600 RVR or 1/4 mile. The Captain turns around to tell the flight attendants and gate agent that we're now delayed. There are about half a dozen other pilots now having the exact same conversation I had with Clearance, and I find out there are two planes already holding at the departure end of the runway with their engines shut down just waiting for mother nature to play nice.

We finish our preflight, dispatch puts a delay on the flight, and we settle in for a long wait.

Clearance says there are 9 airplanes holding on various parts of the airport. At least another half dozen (including us and a couple Southwest planes) are waiting at their gates. The flight attendants have shut off all the lights in the cabin and made a couple rows of seats into beds. The Captain gets up and says he's going to go inside and wait in ops where it's warm. I decide to stay in the plane.

As he walks down the jetbridge I reach behind me to close the cockpit door, hoping to keep some of the cold morning air out. I turn all of the screens down to their dimmest settings and put both sun shades in the CA side window to block the lights from the terminal. I push my seat back and put my feet up on the panel. Everything is still on the airfield, at least as far as I can see. Normally the VOR is right out my window, but I can't even see the near side of the runway.

Sitting back I listen to the controller in the tower I can't see talking to other pilots in planes I can't see trying to figure out how much longer the weather is going to stay down. In the first half hour the visibility comes up to 1200RVR; people start talking about starting their engines. Then it drops to 1000 again. And Navy Chambers is reporting 800. Everybody settles back in.

But then, an Air Wisconsin jet pulls up to the ramp hold like and asks "has anyone requested 23 for departure?"

"No."

"Ok."

Why would anyone request 23?

"What's the visibility?" Air Wisconsin asks again.

"Visibility 1/4 mile, RVR 1000" the controller replies.

It's obvious the wheels are turning in every one's head. I have my airport diagram out, and have turned to the takeoff minimums chapter in our Flight Ops manual.

RVR is controlling. We can use lower than standard takeoff minimums. 600, 600, 600 (arrival, midpoint, rollout) RVR, with one transmissometer inop is ok. 1000, 1000 is allowed with one lower, so long as it's arrival and midpoint at 1000; rollout isn't controlling. ORF only has one transmissometer, though, so we're only allowed 1600 RVR minimum or 1/4 mile. We have 1/4 mile, but Tower reports RVR is 1000 and RVR is controlling. What the hell is Wisconsin working on?

"Say visibility again, please?"

They can't get over the hump either.

"Visibility 1/4 mile, runway five RVR 1000" the tower repeats.

Runway 5 RVR 1000. We need 1600. It clicks.

"Clearance, where is the transmissometer located?" I ask.

"Umm. Arrival end runway 5."

Wisconsin gets it, too. "Clearance Wisconsin ####, request 23 for departure; we'll be ready to go in 10 minutes."

"Clearance Brickyard ####, do you mind if we ask Wisconsin a question?"

"Go ahead," clearance offers.

"Wisconsin ####, this is Brickyard ####, do you have lower minimums for 23 than 5?"

"No, we have 1/4 mile or 1600 RVR."

"There is no RVR value for runway 23," I chime in. "The RVR is on the rollout for 23, so it's not controlling; there is no RVR for runway 23, so the 1/4 mile is all we need."

"Clearance, Republic #### requests 23 for departure!"

Now the tower gets it. "Wisconsin ####, when able taxi to 23, you're number one for departure."

I hear an RJ spool up as I get to the bottom of the jetbridge.

I burst into ops with the airport diagram in hand. At first the Captain is stuck in the same place all the rest of the delayed pilots were, but then I tell him there's only one transmissometer and it's on the rollout of 23. With his FOM in hand, he calls dispatch. Within ten minutes we have a plane full of people and are pushing off the gate. While we board, I keep listening to Clearance explain to plane after plane that runway 5 RVR is 1000, but runway 23 visibility is 1/4 mile. And plane after plane asks for runway 23 for departure.

Almost every first flight out of Norfolk that morning was about a half hour late, but this one detail - where the transmissometer is on the field - saved everyone a multiple hour long delay.

I think the biggest problem most of us had was 1) 5 has lower approach minimums (1/2 mile, vs 3/4 mile for 23) so everyone was thinking of 5 as the better option, and 2) it's instilled in us that RVR is controlling, so when we heard an RVR report that was below minimums, most of us accepted that as game over. What we all failed to realize was that RVR wasn't even available for the runway in question. With only one transmissometer, only one runway has RVR. The other side of the same slab of concrete was visibility only. Minimums say 1/4 mile OR 1600 RVR for a reason. Damn details.