LTNman
Correct me if I am wrong but you can land an aircraft at Luton in a RVR of only 50m but due to the cost of training Easyjet can’t land in anything below 200m. Maybe the Airport Authority should sue the airline for revenue lost when the RVR’s drop below 200m
Incorrect. The 737's do not have a Rudder autopilot channel so they cannot perform Roll Out which is a requirement for CatIIIB. Therefore the 737's are restricted to CatIIIA which has a Decision Height of 75ft and an RVR of 200m.
No amount of training can change this situation!
The Airbus fleet is certified to CatIIIB. No decision height and 75m RVR.
Let's be honest the airport was a shambles and they need a kick up the ars@. Most UK airports hardly ever see snow, but Luton does see it every year almost without fail. Maybe not as bad as this years but it does happen regularly. I think they should be better equipped to cope, they simply don't have enough snow clearing equipment. Secondly they need to come to arrangement with the council so that the airport are paid to grit the access roads. How pathetic was it to see the airports tractor gritting the nice clear roundabout by the Holiday Inn whilst coaches, fire engines and many motorists including me were stuck outside the Alteon Building trying to get up the hill which clearly they weren't allowed to grit.
Quote "Has anybody told them that planes can take off and land in the snow?!"
Not being facetious. As non-aircrew I'm not sure how that works. I thought for safety reasons take-off and landing on snow was a no-no, hence the use of grip-testers etc.,
Can someone elaborate for me please?
Aircraft can and do take off and land on snow. There are performance penalties in terms of weight for take off and runway length required for landing but it's not a major problem. Luton however is a little on the short side and it could well be that a lot of aircraft couldn't land if the runway was contaminated. It depends on aircraft weight, depth of contamination, type of contamination and the surface wind.
FF