| > The Norcal controller was extremely unprofessional. Their behavior is a great example of the US controller attitude™ US ATC is so infamous for. I have no idea where you're getting this from. I've personally flown hundreds of hours in Norcal, and I find the ATC controllers there to be some of the most competent and excellent professionals I've ever interacted with in my entire life. The vast majority of pilots I know feel the same way. > 1) You cannot maintain visual separation at night based on lights only There are multiple position lights on an aircraft, and you can perceive depth from their apparent angular distances. I've flown visual approaches at night myself, and thousands upon thousands of airplanes do this safely every night across the US. > say things like "this conversation is over" because your ego is bruised. Maybe it had more to do with attending to the dozens of other jets the controller was actively responsible for at the time? Do you understand how busy these frequencies can get? > Nevertheless, the controller could've still granted ILS without much issue, it would've caused about 5 minutes of delay for the next flight. I guess you didn't read the big response on the YT channel? They categorically refuted this idea. > 2) The incident history in the US related to taking visuals at night supports the idea that this should not be allowed. No, it really doesn't. Both incidents you cite were caused by fatigue, and may well have been no different during the day. There have probably been literal millions of safe nighttime visual approaches in the last decade in the US. Maybe you've heard bad things about circling approaches at night? That those are unsafe is a much more widely held opinion among pilots, some US airlines don't allow them. But that's very different. > 3) The FAA advised against letting international airlines take visuals at night. The government isn't a monolithic entity, and neither is the FAA. Assuming ATC must allow the ILS because the FAA put out this PR statement is as silly as assuming the USPS must know what address to use when the IRS demands a document from you. > 4) METAR had SCT and BKN cloud below 1500ft Doesn't matter if the approach was clear. > The Norcal controller was way out of line and with what passes for SOP in the US we're gonna have our own Tenerife disaster soon enough. rolls eyes There are definitely some legitimate ATC incidents to pick on in the last year, but this isn't one of them. This is: https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/G... |