RVR / Visibility Reference — Tool Guide

Who It's For & When to Use It

Airport planners who need to translate a runway's published approach minimums into the visibility tier that governs its safety areas and protection zones. Use it when an approach plate gives you an RVR and you need the design-standards visibility category, when you are deciding which RSA/ROFA/RPZ row applies for a planned approach upgrade, when checking how a CAT I, II, or III procedure changes the approach-class infrastructure (ALS, POFZ, Part 77 surface), or when you need a defensible RVR-to-visibility citation for a planning narrative.

How to Use It

1. Review the instrument approach categories. The Visual/Non-Precision, Precision CAT I, CAT II, and CAT III cards each show the visibility floor, decision altitude, ILS/ALS/POFZ requirements, and the Part 77 surface class that comes with the approach — the context that tells you what an RVR value implies for the airport.
2. Pick a unit in Quick Lookup. This is the primary converter. Choose Visibility SM, RVR ft, or RVR m so AvPlot knows how to read the value you are about to enter.
3. Enter the value and read the cross-walked row. For a visibility minimum the tool returns the matching RVR in feet and meters; for an RVR value it returns the approximate statute-mile visibility. Off-table values return the nearest standard rows above and below rather than inventing a number.
4. Identify the design-standard visibility tier. Map the returned category onto the AC 150/5300-13B tiers — visual, not lower than 1 mile, not lower than 3/4 mile, lower than 3/4 mile — which are the inputs the safety-area and protection-zone standards key on.
5. Cross-check the conversion table. The Prevailing Visibility → RVR table lists every standard row with category badges; the highlight-in-table box flags rows that match a value you are scanning for, and the Standard RVR Values by Category table lists the procedure-design RVR set.
6. Carry the visibility minimum into RSA/ROFA/RPZ lookups. The tier you derived here is the visibility input for the RSA/ROFA reference and RPZ dimensions, where it drives the controlling design dimensions.
7. Copy or share. Copy a single converted value, a full result block with its citation, or an entire table. When you enter a visibility in statute miles the URL updates (?vis=), so the address bar is a shareable link that restores the lookup.

Key Features

• Bidirectional lookup. Convert in either direction — a statute-mile visibility minimum to its RVR, or an RVR in feet or meters back to an approximate prevailing visibility — with the instrument approach category returned on every result.
• Approach-category context cards. Visual/Non-Precision through CAT III, each carrying the visibility floor, decision altitude, and the ALS/POFZ/Part 77 implications, so an RVR value reads as a set of airport-design consequences rather than a bare number.
• Standard-value tables with category badges. The full Visibility → RVR conversion table and the Standard RVR Values by Category table are color-coded by FAA category, with precision-only rows flagged and a highlight-in-table search.
• Off-table guidance. A value that is not a standard FAA figure returns the nearest standard rows above and below instead of an interpolated guess, keeping every cited value on a published row.
• Shareable URLs and session persistence. A statute-mile lookup is mirrored into the query string with history.replaceState (?vis=), and the active unit and value are saved locally and restored on return; inbound ?aac=&adg=&vis= links are tolerated so other AvPlot tools can deep-link in.
• Copy and citation trail. Single-value, full-block, and whole-table copy actions all carry the controlling standard — 14 CFR §91.175(h) and FAA Order 8400.13 — so the converted figure travels with its source.

FAA References

• AC 150/5300-13B Chg 1, Airport Design — governing standard for the visibility minimums (visual, ≥1 mile, ≥3/4 mile, <3/4 mile) that drive RSA, ROFA, and RPZ design dimensions.
• 14 CFR §91.175(h) — the prevailing-visibility to RVR comparable-values table underlying the cross-walk; the RVR-to-visibility mapping supports translating published approach minimums into the design-standards visibility tier.
• FAA Order 8260.3 (TERPS) and FAA Order 8400.13 — instrument approach procedure design and operational authorization, defining the standard RVR values and the CAT I/II/III category boundaries.

Limitations & Disclaimers

AvPlot is technical planning production support — accurate enough for design reports, planning studies, and ALP narratives. It is not a replacement for stamped engineering or construction documents. As the tool itself states: RVR values are standard planning references and may differ from published instrument approach procedure minimums; always verify against current FAA approach plates and the Chart Supplement before use in official submittals.

• Prevailing visibility and RVR measure different phenomena and are not directly convertible by formula — the cross-walk is the comparable-values table per 14 CFR §91.175(h), an approximation for planning reference, not a measured equivalence.
• The tool reports standard RVR and visibility values; it does not read a specific runway's published procedure minimums, which can differ with lighting, TDZ/CL configuration, and waivers.

Related Tools

• RSA / ROFA / ROFZ Reference — carry the visibility tier here into Runway Safety Area and Object Free Area dimensions (guide).
• RPZ Dimensions — Runway Protection Zone dimensions, which key on the same visibility minimum (guide).
• ADG / TDG Quick Reference — the Aircraft and Taxiway Design Group inputs that pair with visibility to set the design standards (guide).

Tips & Best Practices

• Start from the published approach, not memory: read the RVR off the procedure or Chart Supplement and convert it here, rather than recalling which tier a CAT I or CAT II approach lands in.
• Watch the <3/4 mile boundary — it is the line that pushes RSA, ROFA, and RPZ to their largest dimensions, so confirm which side of it a lower-than-standard RVR falls on before you size the safety areas.
• Treat the conversion as an approximation, not an equality: visibility and RVR are different measurements, so cite the table row, not a computed figure, in narratives.
• Use the copy-block action to keep the converted value with its 14 CFR §91.175(h) and Order 8400.13 citation when documenting the basis for a design dimension.
• Paste the ?vis= URL into your project notes so the exact visibility input behind your RSA/ROFA/RPZ lookups is recoverable later.