framer, who decides the runway? - the tower and flow between them. How? - not in any particular order - noise abatement, wind, "mode" (as in more departures or more arrivals).
I say this in all seriousness - if you're unhappy with the assigned runway then utter the words "require" and you shall receive without question. We aren't on the flight deck with you so don't know how rested or otherwise you are, what other factors there are and what you feel comfortable with handling at the time.
Thanks for the response Le P.
Like I said in my post I have 'required' another runway in this situation, but that was once out of probably 20 times and like I said, it always makes me think long and hard about the risk I am accepting on behalf of my passengers and crew. The reason for this is because I spend all day making decisions that create a comfortable trade off between efficiency and safety only to be faced with a trade off that is very close to what I consider unacceptable. If I elect to 'require ' an into wind runway I am increasing the workload of others in the system and also facing delays myself. The real question I was interested in was how do you controllers see the risk.ie do you see it as a significant risk or does it not even raise itself as an issue that you are choosing a hairy wind set up onto a shortish runway when there is an option with a lot more fat built into it?
I'm not having a go at controllers, just interested because the two professions are nowhere near as aware of each other's challenges as we used to be.
I think if the controller choosing the runways sat on the jump seat onto 27 at 10pm with a 25kt northerly quartering to tail a few times they might make different decisions in the future. Again, that's not a crack at controllers, more a crack at the system that doesn't roster you guys into the jump seat.