Wet runway
Before you jump down my throat I'm no journo or spotter. I'm a frequent business passenger who was frustratingly turned down to join the university air squadron to train as an RAF pilot many years ago due to my red green colour defective vision (quite common in men). Needless to say I love to fly on aircraft even though I'll never be allowed to actually fly one and if I get a spare hour and I'm nearby I'll pop in to the Airport Hotel for a beer and watch the planes. So, to cut a long story short. I was at MAN today when a severe rain shower hit the airport. The runway was heavily waterlogged and the rain was still very heavy. A BA Avro approached, took a look and thought better of it and went around with clouds of smoke / vapour exhausted from the engines ( I assume this was water from the very heavy rain). Only a minute or so later a BA Embraer approached and landed (without incident I might add) whilst the rain was still hammering down. The question I have is what criteria do the pilots consider when approaching in such a suddenly changed weather environment. Why would the Embraer pilot land in the same conditions rejected by the Avro? I'm particularly interested as I frequently use the BA EMB service to Copenhagen and Oslo.