A B777-200 captain reported the repeated inability of the windshield wipers to remove water sufficie...

Narrative:

During this 6 day identification to asia we have experienced repeated problems with the forward windshields on the 777. They do not allow water to shed. The wipers have little or no effect. We are essentially reducing our visibility to zero. Anything other than light rain and the water seems to smear across the windows and not shear off. Takeoff; landing and taxiing. It does not matter what speed or flight regime. Looking out the window on final yesterday we saw obscured and fuzzy lights that could barely be identified as a runway. The wipers punched a hole about the size of a tin can in the water but only for a few seconds and then fills up. We are looking out the side windows and straining to see through any open corner of the front to land. Taking off in the heavy rain the water is glued to the window and does not shear making any abort or normal takeoff unusually difficult. Imagine looking underwater without the aid of goggles. That is what this looks like. I cannot make another takeoff; landing or taxi again in moderate rain without the guarantee that we can see. This is not airplane specific. It appears that this is a fleet problem.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B777-200 Captain reported the repeated inability of the windshield wipers to remove water sufficiently to provide adequate visibility for takeoff; landing or ground operations. He believes the problem to be fleetwide at any time more than very light rain is encountered.

Narrative: During this 6 day ID to Asia we have experienced repeated problems with the forward windshields on the 777. They do not allow water to shed. The wipers have little or no effect. We are essentially reducing our visibility to zero. Anything other than light rain and the water seems to smear across the windows and not shear off. Takeoff; landing and taxiing. It does not matter what speed or flight regime. Looking out the window on final yesterday we saw obscured and fuzzy lights that could barely be identified as a runway. The wipers punched a hole about the size of a tin can in the water but only for a few seconds and then fills up. We are looking out the side windows and straining to see through any open corner of the front to land. Taking off in the heavy rain the water is glued to the window and does not shear making any abort or normal takeoff unusually difficult. Imagine looking underwater without the aid of goggles. That is what this looks like. I cannot make another takeoff; landing or taxi again in moderate rain without the guarantee that we can see. This is not airplane specific. It appears that this is a fleet problem.

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	910688
Time
Date	201009
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	RJAA.Airport
State Reference	FO
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B777-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Cockpit Window
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 19500 Flight Crew Type 4000
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

A B777-200 captain reported the repeated inability of the windshield wipers to remove water sufficiently to provide adequate visibility for takeoff; landing or ground operations. He believes the problem to be fleetwide at any time more than very light rain is encountered.