as 'Wet snow' not the fine powdery stuff they have elsewhere
Yeah......all disney powder all winter here.....right....
Problems during winter condtions is to some extent down to equipment at the airfield, but mostly down to knowlede IMHO.
Even if Gatwick and Heathrow got equipped to the same level as Oslo or Stockholm, they still would have issues, because their crews would always be inexperienced. Airfield winter maint. is an art, and the difference between well and poorly trained crews is massive.
At Oslo Gardermoen they need 15min to clear, sand/treat with chemicals, and perform the friction test. When they sweep the designated landing RWY, we land tfc on the departure RWY if weather permits, with increased spacing on final to allow for departures in between.
If we use 5nm spacing (not 3 as normal) on the landing RWY (common if B.A is medium or worse) we might land with 10nm spacing on the departure RWY during sweeping. That way you "loose" only 4 landing slots due to the sweeping.
The problems occur when the snow is coming down so heavy that the sweepers canīt get the friction up at all, or if the friction only last for a couple of landings, and they have to start over.
But from what the media show.....not close to that in London
