Pilot statements such as “it was as slippery as grease” and “I thought I wouldn’t be able to stop in time” would normally be associated with stopping on winter-contaminated runways. These are, rather, pilot responses upon landing in rain and on a wet runway. They form part of the pilot feedback in a test program related to aircraft braking action. In fact, the test program revealed that some wet runways have equal or worse braking action than snow- or ice-covered runways.
The Program
The braking action test program came about in 2010 at legacy Continental Airlines, which has been merged with United Airlines, and was based on using the aircraft itself and flight data to better assess braking action. In cooperation with Kongsberg Aeronautical, which possessed an algorithm developed for the purpose that it could easily be adapted and downloaded into the aircraft, the airline’s flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) group saw this as an exciting safety project and…
