'Outside my limits'

[frostbite]

I heard what seemed like a strange one a few days ago.

Aircraft (type unknown) approaching Southend, advised 'Clear to land 06, surface wind 080 degrees, 08 knots'. Visibility was good.

Response was 'That's outside my limits, returning to Biggin'.

What on earth couldn't handle those conditions?

[oliversarmy]

Me !!!

Lol

[lobby]

Almost certainly outside the crosswind limits for a hot air balloon

[Saab Dastard]

Maybe they were referring to the landing fee?

SD

[SkyHawk-N]

Maybe they were referring to Southend

[Final 3 Greens]

What on earth couldn't handle those conditions?

Someof the older stuff from Old Warden, but unlikely it would be flying from Biggin.

[Daysleeper]

Just a thought could it have been a larger jet positioning in for maint? Southend aint exactly huge and they could have required a minimum headwind component to make their performance calcs work?

[Bumz_Rush]

If it was X Biggin then not a BIG jet

Still no idea, but please can some one in ATC, put us out of our misery.
Bumz

[sir.pratt]

a balloon was my first though, unless it was a ppl student on their first solo cross country and got the x-wind component mixed up, thought it was a downwind x-wind landing, and took the safe (to them) option

[rightbank]

I suspect that this was to do with landing distance. From memory I think that the landing distance available (LDA) for Southends runway 06 is around 100 metres or so shorter than 24. For some biz jets that will give a problem for public transport operations and they will need a fair headwind to get in legally. This problem is compounded by some aircraft now having a different landing distance requirement (LDR) depending on the glideslope angle with angles of 3.4 degrees or less requiring more runway than 3.5 degrees or more. 06 PAPIs are only set at 3.0deg whereas 24 ILS is 3.5 deg. Hope this helps.

Although not relevant to Southend, aircraft that are certified for steep approaches e.g. London City, which is 5.5 degrees, have yet another set of landing tables in which the LDR is shorter still.