"Phil Layton" wrote in message ...
this morning, surrounded by mild temperatures..
EGPE 020620Z 00000KT 0300 R23/0550 R05/0900 FZFG OVC001 M00/M00 Q1022=

Freezing fog, as Air Trafficers and Pilots know only too well, is one
of those phenomena we can well do without. But perhaps my biggest
hate of all is freezing rain.

That report from Inverness certainly takes me back some seven or eight
years. We needed 150 metres for take off (as best I can recall -
amazing, I have only been retired 6 years, but have totally forgotten
the details of the regulations). The fog kept thinning to 175 then
thickening to 100 (it wasn't the freezing variety thank goodness) and
finally we got off when it had been 200 metres for the first two
runway segments for a couple of minutes. The following aricraft was
delayed some while after the fog thickened again - I guess our engines
had stirred it up! What I do recall very well was the marvellous view
after we had taken off shortly after dawn, of the fog filled valleys
in and around the Cairngorms. That's the sort of thing I miss most of
all. Still, I do fly my glider from time to time, but not normally
when the visibility is 200 metres :-)

Jack