Mutt:
Thanks for the informative reply - just so I can take this stuff back to the bar and explain it to them - regarding the phrase:
"reduce the impact of the standards on the competitiveness of new versus derivative airplanes" - & - "These standards, which affect manufacturers and operators of transport category
airplanes, are not being applied retroactively to either airplanes currently in use or airplanes of existing approved designs that will be manufactured in the future. "
These statements wouldn't infer that these criteria don't apply to the B-737-700 because it is "airplanes of existing approved designs" - namely a B-737 - which was "manufactured in the future" as a B-737-700 - would they?
Trouble is - there's a lot (at least at the bar) who seem to believe that is true - and statements in the AFM are not exactly concrete in stating that WET runway criteria MUST be used, if the runway is not dry, on any A/C built after 1998 even though it was a derivative.
So - to us laymen down at the bar (Pub would probably better so as not to confuse it with the legal bar) - is there any more definitive statement that makes is clear - without the Yada, Yada, Yada about derivites & future manufacture A/C from a existing design.
Thanks again for your informative reply and any future posting which would clarify it for the Pub Crawlers.
LL