Crosswind ok lining up, but sudden increase during roll

[Andy Rylance]

I "may" have misheard this, but a pilot colleague reported an incident at the weekend where one aircraft was lined up ready to roll and was given take off clearance with the wind details passed. Another aircraft was on finals but far enough out that he was not going to be very close to the one departing, if the take off was reasonably prompt.

For some reason the departing aircraft didn't roll straight away, but just as he started to apply power and move, the inbound aircraft asked for the current gusts and ATC passed the information. At that point as the departing aircraft was moving he came to a halt and declared an aborted take off because "the gusts had increased on that last report and were out of the SOP for his company". So he sat in the middle of the runway and the other approaching inbound had to go around.

Is this a rare event or should ATC have passed on the new gust information asap to the departing aircraft when they realised he was not rolling yet? Or is it a no no to talk to an aircraft once they have been given take off clearance except for dire emergencies?

[Spitoon]

As a general rule, ATC will not make any calls to an aircraft once it has started its take-off roll. It's largely left up to individual judgement although there is a tendency lately for newly trained controllers to have a set response for every situation (or, at least, to want one).

For myself, in marginal wind conditions I'll offer both take-offs and landings regular updates on the wind. I guess pilots are just as individual as controllers because some will say yes and others no.

There's a lot of pressure these days to maintain runway throughput sometimes, I think, without considering the impact on the flightdeck. In situations like this I will endeavour to tell all aircraft involved where the others are and what I would like them to do if it doesn't all go swimmingly - so that in the event of a rejected take-off the aircraft can continue along the runway and off at an RET (say) because the crew knows there's another on final. To reject a take-off and simply stop on the runway - when there is no technical reason why it cannot vacate - is bad form in my mind. But maybe there was something going on in the example you cite that we don't know about.

[ATCO Fred]

If the wind is gusting > 20 Knots across I'll update:

"S/W XYZ deg XY knots, out" Meaning the pilot does not have to reply. As Spitoon said, my job is to provide the information for the pilot to make an informed decision, if that decision means someone goes around then so be it; that's why we have standard missed approach procedures.

Really, the scenario is no different than the aircraft on the RW having a technical fault and not departing. These are not rare events - bread and butter ATC business.

Now, if the aircraft on final were to go-around and the aircraft on the Rw departs that's a whole new ball-game:mad:

Fred