Another one: Minimum Fuel

[Guest Mark McG]

Scenario:you are inbound to EGLL.you are limited to CAT3a Approach.EGKK/EGSS/EGGW/EGHH are all below minima for this approach.you are advised by ATC to expect 20mins + holding in the stack for approach to EGLL.Then one of the runways at EGLL goes blocked and holding times increase substantially.You are approaching the minimum fuel scenario where you are required to divert, but all your alternates are below minima.WHAT DO YOU DO

[Guest TheJones]

OMG I actually had this incident in real life - ended up in me landing the poor guy on a GCA approach well below minima.Haven't got anything official as an answer here: I guess I would seek landing priority, and if I can't get ATC to say yes, I would divert to the best available alternate' regardless of minima.

[Guest Mark McG]

From what I have read on PPRUNE,the still open runway at EGLL could be classed as your primary alternate.AFAIK in the UK Low fuel does not guarantee prioity approach unless you declare a Mayday.Interesting to read that this has actually happened to a RW controller.

[Guest TheJones]

The real case was around a decade ago...It was a very (rare and) heavy winter in Israel. The sky were overcast with low cloud layers, thunderstorms and very bad visibility. Landing equipment in Israel allowed 300ft minima at the time (some 200ft today, but no less).During one of the storm breaks a C130 took off to bring weather related supplies to some more remote airports. When he took off from the last airport he was in, the sky went overcast once again in seconds, closing ALL airports, strips or anything available for landing.He had some fuel remaining, but all signs showed things are changing for the worse not for the better. Upon a decision from the "high windows", it was decided that he will land on a special GCA approach, at the best wx-conditioned airport.It was the airport I was in at the time, being very experienced in GCA work - so I was chosen to make this one, with a second ATC beside me just in case.WX at the airport was 8/8 at 200' max, 800 meters visibility.GCA minima at the time was 300' base, 1nm visibilty (!). It was very hard to see the radar signals after the 1nm line, but I played with some buttons and arranged it for the best.Center brought the C130 to a 17nm long final, and the GCA begun. The challenge on my side was to bring the C130 EXACTLY on runway track and at the very precise altitude during descent. I made it finally - pilots got a visual at 1/2 nm (170ft AGL approx).Winds were very strong, I made them fly at ~17 degrees offset!It was a scary event, and I ended up covered with sweat. 10 minutes later the crew came over to the tower to celebrate a bit - they were more sweaty than me ;-)This approach actually ended things up for me: it was the challenge of all challenges using GCA and I lost interest in this old radar thingy. I hardly ever did it again since then.