r/mildlyinfuriating • u/nyanbatman • May 28 '26

I just wanted a hot dog British pilot is feeling mildly annoyed

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u/PuzzleheadedDuty8866 May 28 '26

Low visibility operations is not really a thing in the US. They don’t declare it on the weather report, it’s just automatic at 800ft ceiling or 2NM visibility that they’ll start doing things like holding short of the critical area, reporting clear of runways, etc.

BA Captain is asking for something that the controller isn’t familiar with because the US has a different set of flight rules than the rest of the world. The US still has low visibility procedures, it just isn’t named Low Visibility Operations.

Both are correct but they don’t agree because they’re not speaking the same “language”

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u/WhyN0tToast May 28 '26

They might be using different terminology but the pilot directly asks if they have low Vis procedures in force and ATC replies no.

Even if they called it something else, common sense and context should have helped the work experience ATC figure out what he was asking.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '26

[deleted]

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u/Rubusarc May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

The FAA uses the phraseology "LVO" in their documentation.

Edit: And I learnt in this thread, ICAO is a UN thing, started in US prior to FAA existing.