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Continental Airline Pilots and ATC at Houston

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your_dreamguy

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 3, 2002
Posts
246
Continental pilots, I fly into IAH frequently. Also, I have jumpseated in your cockpits many times going into IAH.

Yesterday (March 11, 2009 around sunset), I was going into IAH and the weather was IFR with a small pocket, clear of clouds near the aiport, well inside of the FAF for the westbound runways.

Many of the CAL planes going into IAH were accepting visual approaches going into IAH. How could you guys accept visual approaches at that time? There was no way you could conduct visual approaches. So, ATC tried to pressure us to take a visual approach into RWY 26R. Unfortunately, my captain fell for the bait because ATC threatened to break us off from the approach and re-sequence us. The result was that ATC gave us some wild vector, well inside of OWELL FAF that resulted in an un-stabilized approach that I managed to save. However, both my captain and I were extremely upset.

I have jumpseated many times on CAL in the cockpit. I've seen you accept visual apps into IAH and then fly straight into the clouds which is a violation of the FARs.

So, please CAL pilots, do not accept visual apps going into IAH when conditions are not VFR. You are breaking regs and giving the controllers a false impression that conditions are safe for visual apps when they are not.

IAH controllers, please stop issuing visual apps when conditions are below VFR.

My passengers and I will thank you.
 
One word would've solved your problem-- "Unable"... It really doesn't matter what the "other" guys do, its your ticket that matters... I won't accept the visual for the PF unless I confirm with him/her that they have the runway/preceding aircraft in sight.
 
Continental pilots, I fly into IAH frequently. Also, I have jumpseated in your cockpits many times going into IAH.

Yesterday (March 11, 2009 around sunset), I was going into IAH and the weather was IFR with a small pocket, clear of clouds near the aiport, well inside of the FAF for the westbound runways.

Many of the CAL planes going into IAH were accepting visual approaches going into IAH. How could you guys accept visual approaches at that time? There was no way you could conduct visual approaches. So, ATC tried to pressure us to take a visual approach into RWY 26R. Unfortunately, my captain fell for the bait because ATC threatened to break us off from the approach and re-sequence us. The result was that ATC gave us some wild vector, well inside of OWELL FAF that resulted in an un-stabilized approach that I managed to save. However, both my captain and I were extremely upset.

I have jumpseated many times on CAL in the cockpit. I've seen you accept visual apps into IAH and then fly straight into the clouds which is a violation of the FARs.

So, please CAL pilots, do not accept visual apps going into IAH when conditions are not VFR. You are breaking regs and giving the controllers a false impression that conditions are safe for visual apps when they are not.

IAH controllers, please stop issuing visual apps when conditions are below VFR.

My passengers and I will thank you.

LOL, this should be good. Let me paraphrase the responses here for you. This should save you hours of sifting through the 10 pages this will no doubt become..........







Eat $hit new guy!!!!
Now piss off............


Thats all.
 
Last edited:
Continental pilots, I fly into IAH frequently. Also, I have jumpseated in your cockpits many times going into IAH.

Yesterday (March 11, 2009 around sunset), I was going into IAH and the weather was IFR with a small pocket, clear of clouds near the aiport, well inside of the FAF for the westbound runways.

Many of the CAL planes going into IAH were accepting visual approaches going into IAH. How could you guys accept visual approaches at that time? There was no way you could conduct visual approaches. So, ATC tried to pressure us to take a visual approach into RWY 26R. Unfortunately, my captain fell for the bait because ATC threatened to break us off from the approach and re-sequence us. The result was that ATC gave us some wild vector, well inside of OWELL FAF that resulted in an un-stabilized approach that I managed to save. However, both my captain and I were extremely upset.

I have jumpseated many times on CAL in the cockpit. I've seen you accept visual apps into IAH and then fly straight into the clouds which is a violation of the FARs.

So, please CAL pilots, do not accept visual apps going into IAH when conditions are not VFR. You are breaking regs and giving the controllers a false impression that conditions are safe for visual apps when they are not.

IAH controllers, please stop issuing visual apps when conditions are below VFR.

My passengers and I will thank you.

First off, your both up there so its both your faults. If you didn't like what he did then you should have said something.

Second, salvaging an unstabilized approach dosen't make you a good pilot. It makes you a stupid one.
 
From what I've seen, pilots fly into clouds on a visual quite often.

Seriously? man, I must be doing it wrong, then. I only accept a visual when I am below the cloud bases, or well clear laterally of any potential obstruction to my vision and stabilized approach path. I have NEVER felt remotely pressured to accept a visual approach when the conditions are not there. If approach calls and asks if I have the field in sight, I wait until both myself and the FO have the field and are comfortable with the traffic situation. Even all the captains I have ever been paired with have never punched through the white stuff on a visual. Wow is all I can say. ATC is paid to vector us and provide traffic separation. Why not let them do their jobs?
 
Seriously? man, I must be doing it wrong, then. I only accept a visual when I am below the cloud bases, or well clear laterally of any potential obstruction to my vision and stabilized approach path. I have NEVER felt remotely pressured to accept a visual approach when the conditions are not there. If approach calls and asks if I have the field in sight, I wait until both myself and the FO have the field and are comfortable with the traffic situation. Even all the captains I have ever been paired with have never punched through the white stuff on a visual. Wow is all I can say. ATC is paid to vector us and provide traffic separation. Why not let them do their jobs?

We're not talking hard IMC here, otherwise a visual wouldn't even be offered by ATC as you need VFR mins. However, touching upon a cloud here and there momentarily to get the job done isn't a big deal. Normally, you're not in a positon to lose sight of the field/AC you're following.
 
If we all flew like weenies delays would be much worse than they are now. Fly within your comfort level and let us professionals do our thing. You don't have to see the airport to do a visual. Just follow the lil dot in front of you!!! Go try an "L.A" visual in LAX. Smog used to be so bad you'd never see the airport on the best vfr day.
 
No kidding. Someone needs a little more self confidence in the cockpit.
 

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