Ryanair pilot assesses snowy braking action!
I've read most of this thread...
I applaud the Ryanair Captain for asking to see for himself a runway friction test run using the highly expensive equipment that LPL, as a licensed aerodrome with high standards, would have been using to measure friction.
Whether or not he then departed would not depend primarily on what he saw, but on the reading obtained and his ops manual.
He would be much better informed firstly about the general state of the pavement and conditions than a simple reading would tell him, and secondly on how carefully the airport staff did the testing.
I ran an airport for a while and would have welcomed any pilot doing that as a fellow professional. We used a good Mu meter, but I suspect things have got better now.
And anyway, he was probably getting bored waiting to go and wanted something to do.
I applaud the Ryanair Captain for asking to see for himself a runway friction test run using the highly expensive equipment that LPL, as a licensed aerodrome with high standards, would have been using to measure friction.
Whether or not he then departed would not depend primarily on what he saw, but on the reading obtained and his ops manual.
He would be much better informed firstly about the general state of the pavement and conditions than a simple reading would tell him, and secondly on how carefully the airport staff did the testing.
I ran an airport for a while and would have welcomed any pilot doing that as a fellow professional. We used a good Mu meter, but I suspect things have got better now.
And anyway, he was probably getting bored waiting to go and wanted something to do.
