Narrative:

This was my second flight [to] eddf in the past week. It was a flight optimizing program's flight plan. The weather in eddf and throughout europe was very poor with icing; freezing rain; and snow. During pre-flight I noticed a report for the current weather at eddf and ebbr which was not normal to our company flight crews. The metar report for ebbr our re-dispatch destination airport: sa XC30Z 03012KT 1900 -sn br SCT005 BKN008 M01/M02 Q1004 resn R07R/590155 R02/290047 R25R/590233 tempo XA00 sn. I went to the flight office and asked if they knew the meaning of the reports in ebbr. They checked the fom and they stated it was from a snowtam report. I checked with the dispatcher; he agreed that he did not know the proper interpretation and would check on it with the met department and government regulations. Shortly after takeoff the new forecast for eddf was -fzra followed by -sn for our arrival; with crosswinds exceeding 15 KTS. While airborne; we requested airport conditions via ACARS; the ACARS application and request was not available due to the flight optimizing program's flight plan. We requested a report from the eddf operations and they were closed until XA00. The dispatcher did make a request of the flight inbound to eddf for a braking action report; and we did receive it at XB30Z. Upon arriving at eddf and receiving ATIS; the reported metar readings for deceleration were available. The crosswinds now exceeded 15 KTS; with light freezing rain; and it began to snow with visibility at 2;000 meters. The braking action reports were all reported as fair to good and the ATIS deceleration readings verified the pilots' reports. After landing on 7L; and exiting on the high speed exit; the exits were very slippery and even though the exit speed was 15 KTS; it should have been reported that the exits from the runway were slippery and less than good for braking action. We did report this to the company. The dispatcher on duty who worked with me to approve the ofp (operation flight plan) did some research on the runway contamination reporting in the metar for eddf; ebbr; eham; etc. None of the interpretation information was available for flight crews; dispatchers; company flight operations; met departments; or government regulations. After looking over the report prepared by the dispatcher; it was very apparent that this information is a very critical source of information to the flight crews for a safe operating environment for landing aircraft. This metar classification is hidden away in a eurocontrol document: http://www.flyingineurope.be/metarrunway.htm. After speaking with several flight operations staff; the fom will eventually be changed to reflect the information provided by eurocontrol; however; until then this information should be readily available to flight crews.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Captain questioned the EDDF; EBBR; and EHAM METAR reports and discovered that Eurocontrol issued a new airport weather reporting format which had yet to be made available to his air carrier.

Narrative: This was my second flight [to] EDDF in the past week. It was a flight optimizing program's flight plan. The weather in EDDF and throughout Europe was very poor with icing; freezing rain; and snow. During pre-flight I noticed a report for the current weather at EDDF and EBBR which was not normal to our company flight crews. The METAR report for EBBR our re-dispatch destination airport: SA XC30Z 03012KT 1900 -SN BR SCT005 BKN008 M01/M02 Q1004 RESN R07R/590155 R02/290047 R25R/590233 tempo XA00 SN. I went to the flight office and asked if they knew the meaning of the reports in EBBR. They checked the FOM and they stated it was from a SNOWTAM report. I checked with the Dispatcher; he agreed that he did not know the proper interpretation and would check on it with the MET department and government regulations. Shortly after takeoff the new forecast for EDDF was -FZRA followed by -SN for our arrival; with crosswinds exceeding 15 KTS. While airborne; we requested airport conditions via ACARS; the ACARS application and request was not available due to the flight optimizing program's flight plan. We requested a report from the EDDF operations and they were closed until XA00. The Dispatcher did make a request of the flight inbound to EDDF for a braking action report; and we did receive it at XB30Z. Upon arriving at EDDF and receiving ATIS; the reported METAR readings for deceleration were available. The crosswinds now exceeded 15 KTS; with light freezing rain; and it began to snow with visibility at 2;000 meters. The braking action reports were all reported as fair to good and the ATIS deceleration readings verified the pilots' reports. After landing on 7L; and exiting on the high speed exit; the exits were very slippery and even though the exit speed was 15 KTS; it should have been reported that the exits from the runway were slippery and less than good for braking action. We did report this to the company. The Dispatcher on duty who worked with me to approve the OFP (Operation Flight Plan) did some research on the runway contamination reporting in the METAR for EDDF; EBBR; EHAM; etc. None of the interpretation information was available for flight crews; dispatchers; company flight operations; MET departments; or government regulations. After looking over the report prepared by the Dispatcher; it was very apparent that this information is a very critical source of information to the flight crews for a safe operating environment for landing aircraft. This METAR classification is hidden away in a Eurocontrol document: Http://www.flyingineurope.be/METARrunway.htm. After speaking with several flight operations staff; the FOM will eventually be changed to reflect the information provided by Eurocontrol; however; until then this information should be readily available to flight crews.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.