Bobblehat
Shame BAA have decided to make EGLL RWY 23 no longer available for use at less than 12 months notice.
It seems to me that the harder the wind blows in the South-East of England, the further back it goes, thus at 60kt it's often 210 or even 180. The only decent length runway in the SE that caters for this is STN. The rules say that when deciding on the QDM of a new runway, the average wind for xxyears must be taken into account. That might have mattered when all a/c were taildraggers, but ANY commercial a/c could cope with 270/25 on a 210 runway, so in my view, the rules need re-writing.
I contend that any new runway/s in the SE should orientate NNE/SSW, NOT E/W.
Of course, that won't happen 'cos there won't be any greenfield major airport development. The only runway that might qualify will be the parallel at STN. The LHR (and LGW, if it happens) are planned to be parallel with the existing...
Cheers,
The Odd One