ABSTRACT
The operation of aircraft on winter contaminated runway surfaces is hazardous. Airports that wish to operate during the winter season should put in place procedures which will provide for the safe runway surface conditions needed and airports should have in place an acceptable runway surface condition reporting program so that pilots will know what conditions exist prior to initiating landing or take off procedures. Uniformity in reporting practices on an International scale is essential. Aircraft fly all around the world, from airport to airport and from country to country. For obvious safety reasons, it is no longer acceptable for individual airports or Countries to have different reporting procedures. Pilots have enough to worry about when operating on these type of surfaces, and this difficult task should not add to by providing to pilots a multitude of different reporting practices, procedures and different ways to interpret the results. Critical in this reporting procedure is the measuring of runway friction. At the present time, there are many different friction measuring devices being used at airports around the world. These measuring devices are all good and they all report friction. How these devices measure friction however is not uniform and the friction values reported are different. All friction measuring devices should when operated on the same surface report a friction value which is the same regardless where within the world it is being used. What is needed is an International Runway Friction Index and work is currently underway to establish this index. This paper discusses runway surface condition reporting practices and some the issues related to measuring friction on winter contaminated surfaces. This will be followed by a brief outline of the Joint Winter Friction Measuring Program currently underway which will be the basis for development of the International Runway Friction Index and an aid for having International harmonization of procedures and practices.
