WITH DETERIORATING WX CONDITIONS AND LOW FUEL; FLC DECLARED EMER FOR PRIORITY HANDLING AND HAD TO MAKE A CAT III APCH LNDG.

Narrative

DEPARTED ATL FOR TPA WITH A NO ALTERNATE REQUIRED FLT PLAN. ARRIVED TPA AREA AS FOG WAS MOVING IN; RWY 18R WAS ABOUT TO CLOSE DUE TO LOW RVR AND FOG WAS MOVING E TOWARD RWY 18L. APCH CTL SLOWED US DOWN; VECTORED US S OF THE ARPT BACK TO THE W; A GOOD WAYS N OF THE ARPT AND THEN TO JOIN THE APCH FOR RWY 18L. ONLY THEN WERE WE ADVISED THAT A BEECH BARON HAD BEEN PUT IN FRONT OF US ON THE APCH AND WE WERE TO HANG EVERYTHING OUT AND SLOW TO MINIMUM SPD; SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASING OUR FUEL BURN. AT THIS TIME THE VISIBILITY ON RWY 18L WAS DROPPING RAPIDLY. AS FUEL WAS BECOMING A MAJOR CONCERN; TPA TWR WAS ADVISED AT THIS TIME THAT IF WE MISSED THE APCH WE WOULD NEED AN IMMEDIATE RETURN AND CLRNC FOR A CAT III APCH TO RWY 36L. WHEN THE APCH MISSED; WE IMMEDIATELY DEMANDED THE RWY 36L CAT III. APPARENTLY THE TWR PERSONNEL WERE DUMBFOUNDED BY THE DEMAND; BUT RETURNED US TO APCH CTL WHO; UNABLE TO COMPREHEND OUR CONCERN ABOUT FUEL; ASKED IF WE WISHED TO DECLARE AN EMER. AS THIS WAS APPARENTLY THE ONLY WAY TO GET THEIR ATTN; WE DECLARED AN EMER AND; AFTER WHAT WE THOUGHT WAS TOO MUCH DELAY; WE WERE CLRED FOR AND SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED A CAT III APCH TO RWY 36L. WITHOUT THE CAT III ACFT AND GND CAPABILITIES; WE WOULD NOT HAVE LANDED AT TPA. THERE WERE 2 MAJOR FACTORS INVOLVED: 1) AFTER AN EXTENDED DEP DELAY IN ATL; I NEGLECTED TO RECOGNIZE THE DETERIORATING WX IN TPA; AND THE NECESSITY FOR ADDITIONAL FUEL. 2) TPA TRACON PERSONNEL NEGLECTED TO RECOGNIZE THEIR OWN DETERIORATING WX CONDITIONS AND ESTABLISH ARPT FACILITIES FOR USING LOWER MINIMUM RWYS (I.E.; CAT III; RWY 36L).