Because of routine procedural considerations and to the consternation of the flight crew; mco ATC re...

Attributes
ACN	916317
Time
Date	201010
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	MCO.Airport
State Reference	FL
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250 Flight Crew Total 23000 Flight Crew Type 3000
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

Pushed back from the gate in bright sunshine. Given runway 17R for takeoff. East half of airport shrouded in fog. West side in the clear. Fog was drifting in from the east then being burned off by the heat of the airport surface. Asked ground control RVR for 17R. Reply was 800-1000-1400. Asked RVR for 18L. Told better than 6;000. Asked why we were taking off from a runway with cat III weather when there was a VFR runway available. Told because procedures for our departure direction dictated 17R. Since we could legally use 17R we did; RVR had also come up enough so that the first officer could legally make takeoff. Climbing out northward; we looked back and could still see 18L and right in the clear while 17L and right were buried under fog and were left shaking out heads at yet another instance of ATC not letting common sense get in the way of routine procedures.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Because of routine procedural considerations and to the consternation of the flight crew; MCO ATC required a B757-200 to take off on a Runway shrouded in CAT III level fog instead of utilizing available same direction runways in the clear.

Narrative: Pushed back from the gate in bright sunshine. Given Runway 17R for takeoff. East half of airport shrouded in fog. West side in the clear. Fog was drifting in from the east then being burned off by the heat of the airport surface. Asked Ground Control RVR for 17R. Reply was 800-1000-1400. Asked RVR for 18L. Told better than 6;000. Asked why we were taking off from a runway with Cat III weather when there was a VFR runway available. Told because procedures for our departure direction dictated 17R. Since we could legally use 17R we did; RVR had also come up enough so that the First Officer could legally make takeoff. Climbing out northward; we looked back and could still see 18L and R in the clear while 17L and R were buried under fog and were left shaking out heads at yet another instance of ATC not letting common sense get in the way of routine procedures.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Because of routine procedural considerations and to the consternation of the flight crew; mco ATC required a B757-200 to take off on a runway shrouded in CAT III level fog instead of utilizing available same direction runways in the clear.