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7+ Miles

Ironflight

VAF Moderator / Line Boy
Mentor
So how many of you have ever noticed that military weather reporting tends to stop quantifying any visibility great than 7 miles? ?Visibility 7+? is the norm, leaving much to the imagination?.or local knowledge of what that really means. Here are a few shots taken on a flight the morning after Thanksgiving, launching out of Big Bear Lake (L35) in the mountains northeast of the LA basin. Visibility was reported to be 7+, and I can buy that!

The view across Lake Arrowhead to the west, across the Antelope Valley ? towards Palmdale, Edwards a little to the right of that?

P1020032.JPG


Looking slightly to the left of the previous shot at the San Gabriel?s ? LA basin to the left, the high desert to the right.

P1020033.JPG


Further left ? San Bernadino and Redlands at the base of the mountains, with the San Diego off in the distance, beyond the coastal range.

P1020034.JPG


Proof that you CAN get a nice day in LA ? but sometimes, you just need to be above the smog to see it!

(Return trip from Big Bear to Houston on Saturday? Two legs ? mine was from Big Bear to Silver City, NM?then Louise took the front seat and got us all the way home ? with an hour of fuel still in the tanks!! Yeah, I still love the RV-8?.)

Paul
 
It was almost that clear here yesterday. I could just see the Atlanta skyline from 75 miles or so from only 2500 ft..... That's a RARE thing on this side of the Mississippi...

Nice pictures, I like how you can sort of see the elevation difference between the bain and desert....
 
Apopka to VAB

On Saturday I could see the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC (big white cube with vertical black stripes (doors) from 5500' while over Orlando-Apopka (X04) airport. Foreflight calculates 50 nm distance. I've got fuzzy picture evidence from my little handheld Canon ELPH camera. :)
 
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Visibility was great this weekend as I picked up and dropped off my daughter and her hubby in Laramie. We call that "Sever Clear" around here. :D

Winds in Laramie, 7,300MSL were 270 @ 33 gusting to 45 when I took off in the -10. Runway 21 was the choice. :eek: Needless to say that was interesting. ;)
 
At an EAA event we hosted our tower controllers for a Q&A session. Someone asked why 7 miles visibility was always the maximum reported, even when it was CAVU.

The answer was basically they have known radio towers, buildings, etc. that have been surveyed for distance from the airport. They simply look out and see if they can see them. In the case of our local field, the most distant surveyed landmark is 7 miles.
 
ever noticed that military weather reporting tends to stop quantifying any visibility great than 7 miles?

Paul,

Blame it on ICAO. The reason for 7 miles is because ICAO uses meters and 9999 meters is the maximum vis they'll show on a metar/taf. 9,999 meters is 6.2 miles and so they round up to 7 miles. We see it all the time overseas. Right now its clear and a million outside and our current metar is: 261450Z VRB01KT 9999 FEW130 SCT180 Q1020, etc.
 
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That kind of visibilty is just another day here in Colorado. We consider 7 miles to be marginal VFR, but please don't tell anybody.:)

Jim Berry
RV-10
 
That kind of visibilty is just another day here in Colorado. We consider 7 miles to be marginal VFR, but please don't tell anybody.

On one of my first trips back east I encountered visibility that was probably a bit better than ten miles. My memory is vague but it could have been 15 miles or so.

I thought I was getting into IFR conditions :)
 
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