Interview Question

[Southern Cross]

So what's the point of the question? If RVR is the controlling value, who cares if you can calculate how many feet you can see. Besides, you need more than one RVR to takeoff anyway if the vis is that low. How would you eyeball roll out vis? This qualifies as a stupid interview question.

It's possible that a set of ops specs may require something more restrictive then say 0/0 for departures under part 91, hence the need to determine a visibility out of podunk airport (insert fractional operations here).

Other factors would need to be taken into effect to use this method though i.e. if your sitting on the end of the runway, the length of the runway end strips, the length of the numbers, whether it's a (L)eft, (R)ight runway (additional markings prior to strips), etc.

I have also heard this topic has been used as an interview question. Personally, I'd have to be pretty desperate to move an airplane to use this method for determining visibility.