Hello!
Small town question:
I live in Rankin Inlet, NU and am just watching a spat develop between the airport folks and Calm Air/First Air.
The CRFI is .44 and there is a 50 degree crosswind at 25+ kts. The operator says the runway is unusable for a 737-400 but the Airport folks are telling people that it is "perfect". In this small town with so many people trying to leave for Christmas this is causing a bit of tension, to say the least.
I was curious to know what operator limits are normally for situations like this? Not trying to say anything bad about anyone, just curious about this today.
CRFI
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thirdtimecharm
- Rank 3
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- Joined: Sun Jun 18, 2006 2:32 pm
- Location: Rankin
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The Hammer
- Rank 6
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Re: CRFI
Considering First Air owns and operates the airplane and has operated large Boeing jets in the Arctic for decades I'd say they probably have a pretty good handle on the situation. There may be other factors at play with the aircraft operationally and the weather. Nobody makes money sitting on the ground and at Christmas there's people and Christmas goods going north too.
The Rankin airport is also a little fiefdom, like many little airports, who seem to forget just how little they matter in the "big picture". They really have very little, if any, "skin in the game" should anything go wrong even if it is a little bent metal that takes the aircraft out service for a few days. It costs $$ and gets TC attention.
The Rankin airport is also a little fiefdom, like many little airports, who seem to forget just how little they matter in the "big picture". They really have very little, if any, "skin in the game" should anything go wrong even if it is a little bent metal that takes the aircraft out service for a few days. It costs $$ and gets TC attention.
Re: CRFI
Well if you look at the CRFI max wind chart, .44 is about the minimum required CRFI for 50 degrees at 25kt. Considering the wind 2 hours ago was gusting to 27kt, that would put it over the limit. It looks like it has dropped a bit since then though.thirdtimecharm wrote:Hello!
Small town question:
I live in Rankin Inlet, NU and am just watching a spat develop between the airport folks and Calm Air/First Air.
The CRFI is .44 and there is a 50 degree crosswind at 25+ kts. The operator says the runway is unusable for a 737-400 but the Airport folks are telling people that it is "perfect". In this small town with so many people trying to leave for Christmas this is causing a bit of tension, to say the least.
I was curious to know what operator limits are normally for situations like this? Not trying to say anything bad about anyone, just curious about this today.
If I lived there, I'd prefer them to wait for the wind to drop, rather than trying to take off on the absolute limit of controllability (unless there is something special about the 737-400 that makes it ok to take off in these conditions).
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'97 Tercel
- Rank 8
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- Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2013 5:19 pm
Re: CRFI
Haha you can't listen to airport or town folks up north. Can't even count how many times I was told "it's all good!"
In isolated towns there's a lot of pressure on airlines/charter companies to continue operations no matter what, especially near Christmas (or bingo weekends).
In isolated towns there's a lot of pressure on airlines/charter companies to continue operations no matter what, especially near Christmas (or bingo weekends).
Re: CRFI
All you have to know is that the airport folks do not operate the airplane and are not responsible if the operator skids off the side into the ditch.thirdtimecharm wrote:The CRFI is .44 and there is a 50 degree crosswind at 25+ kts. The operator says the runway is unusable for a 737-400 but the Airport folks are telling people that it is "perfect". In this small town with so many people trying to leave for Christmas this is causing a bit of tension, to say the least.
