Fog wreaked havoc for some pilots at Fresno's Chandler Airport

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- While some planes were allowed to land dense fog kept most flights grounded Tuesday morning at Fresno Chandler Airport.

Joseph Oldham has been a pilot for over four decades and he said, "We don't have radar on this field for precision approaches so most of the pilots that fly here fly under visual flight rules."

When the fog is bad enough pilots coming in to land at small airports like Chandler are basically flying blind-- relying on instruments in the cockpit and their training to guide them on their approach.

Pilots said the runway only comes into focus just moments before the plane touches down

"It's a very precision type flying, nice, slow, smooth, and small and want to make sure everything is right side up on that airplane," said Pat Napolitano, pilot.

What happens if the fog is too thick to take off what's a pilot to do? Grab some coffee, grab from breakfast at the Flight Line Café and hang out at chandler airport. Waiting for the fog to lift is just about a pilot's only option on a day like Tuesday.

"Eventually it will kind of burn off once we get some holes in the clouds and the suns starts penetrating, the burn off happens faster. We saw that happen yesterday afternoon," said Oldham.