A B737-700 first officer discussed the possibility of pilots enhancing their braking action reports ...

Narrative:

During an arrival to mdw; I programmed the performance computer for landing. The ATIS was reporting winds 200/11 gusting 23; visibility 2 light rain; ceiling 1;000 broken; ILS 13C; and the braking action/field condition report was wet-good. The performance computer landing data for flaps 40 wet-good at our fairly heavy weight of 126.2 was only legal with maximum auto brakes on 13C. On final when we switched to the tower frequency; the controller reported braking action; fair; by the last arriving B737. The captain had me get out the box and compute the landing data for fair braking and we were now not legal. There was one more aircraft; ahead of us on short final and I asked the tower for his braking action after landing. He also reported fair so we went around.by the time we came back for second approach; the landing weight was down to 125;000 and we were now legal (barely) with a ten-foot positive margin max brakes for wet-fair. For the second approach; the tower reported braking action as good by the last arriving B737. The braking action reports are subjective; as we all know; and vary based on where you are on the runway; but mdw 13C is pretty slippery and maybe fair would be a better choice for everyone during a significant rain event. I also think dispatch should consider wet-fair for forecast tsra and short runways.this safety report is not really to report an error on our part. We went around when fair was reported and were legal to land from a second try. But by then; good was being reported. Did these pilots really think braking was good or were they reporting good versus fair due to the impact on mdw operation when braking action is less than good? I think we as an airline and as pilots; are pretty good about acting conservatively on snow days; but maybe we need to re-evaluate our operation and braking action reports on significant rain days as well; particularly in places like mdw and sna.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-700 First Officer discussed the possibility of pilots enhancing their braking action reports on wet runways at MDW because reports of less than 'good' substantially impact the legality of subsequent landings on the airport's notoriously short runways.

Narrative: During an arrival to MDW; I programmed the performance computer for landing. The ATIS was reporting winds 200/11 gusting 23; visibility 2 light rain; ceiling 1;000 broken; ILS 13C; and the braking action/field condition report was wet-good. The performance computer landing data for flaps 40 wet-good at our fairly heavy weight of 126.2 was only legal with maximum auto brakes on 13C. On final when we switched to the Tower frequency; the Controller reported braking action; fair; by the last arriving B737. The Captain had me get out the box and compute the landing data for fair braking and we were now not legal. There was one more aircraft; ahead of us on short final and I asked the Tower for his braking action after landing. He also reported fair so we went around.By the time we came back for second approach; the landing weight was down to 125;000 and we were now legal (barely) with a ten-foot positive margin max brakes for wet-fair. For the second approach; the Tower reported braking action as good by the last arriving B737. The braking action reports are subjective; as we all know; and vary based on where you are on the runway; but MDW 13C is pretty slippery and maybe fair would be a better choice for everyone during a significant rain event. I also think Dispatch should consider wet-fair for forecast TSRA and short runways.This safety report is not really to report an error on our part. We went around when fair was reported and were legal to land from a second try. But by then; good was being reported. Did these pilots really think braking was good or were they reporting good versus fair due to the impact on MDW Operation when braking action is less than good? I think we as an airline and as pilots; are pretty good about acting conservatively on snow days; but maybe we need to re-evaluate our operation and braking action reports on significant rain days as well; particularly in places like MDW and SNA.

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.

Attributes
ACN	945646
Time
Date	201104
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	MDW.Airport
State Reference	IL
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 226
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

A B737-700 first officer discussed the possibility of pilots enhancing their braking action reports on wet runways at mdw because reports of less than 'good' substantially impact the legality of subsequent landings on the airport's notoriously short runways.