Narrative:

The purpose of this report is to express concern for standing water on runways following heavy rain at mdw. Two recent landing events at mdw may help to illustrate the issue: in the first event; we were the first air carrier to land; behind a learjet; very soon after heavy rain had ended at mdw. The learjet ahead reported braking action as fair. For our landing; using maximum autobrakes; the apparent braking action was significantly less than expected from wet-good. It was night so I could not clearly assess the runway condition. But from the braking action; I would estimate that there was considerable standing water on the runway; which resulted in hydroplaning during some portions of the landing rollout. Because of the reduced braking action; I continued to use reverse thrust until reaching taxi speed and exited runway 31C at the bravo high speed taxiway. At the time; I reported braking action as fair. Later in the trip; after reviewing the fom braking action table under braking action characteristics and correlations topic; I came to the conclusion that the braking action was; more likely; actually poor rather than fair. (I do not recall if the current ATIS for this landing included any reference to standing water on the runways.) for the second event; on a trip the following week; we landed on runway 4R at mdw following rain earlier in the day; with the current ATIS stating 'ponding water.' we again used maximum autobrakes; but in this case the deceleration was substantially greater than the earlier event; allowing us to easily exit at the papa reverse taxiway even after disengaging the autobrakes as early as possible during the landing rollout. From the visual appearance (daylight in this case) and the braking action obtained; the runway appeared to be dry; and we reported it as such. From these two events; along with other experience at mdw; it seems reasonable to expect standing water on the runways after significant rain. How much; if any; of course depends on how much rain fell and how long ago it ended. Further; the expected braking action could range from dry to fair or even poor; depending on how much water remains on the runways. A statement in the ATIS of 'ponding water' provides little useful information on whether a safe landing can be made; as the ATIS includes no information on how much of the runway is covered by water or to what depth. My first; and admittedly obvious; recommendation is to improve the drainage of the runways to reduce the standing water problem. Second; until that can be accomplished; I recommend that when there is standing water on the runways; the ATIS provide information on water depth and the amount of the runway covered. In this way; pilots would have up-to-date information to use in assessing landing and takeoff performance; similar to that which is provided when snow conditions exist.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier pilot reported Runway 31C landing braking action as fair following heavy rain but he should have reported poor because standing water did not drain from the runway. ATC did not report standing water depth and amount of runway covered.

Narrative: The purpose of this report is to express concern for standing water on runways following heavy rain at MDW. Two recent landing events at MDW may help to illustrate the issue: In the first event; we were the first air carrier to land; behind a Learjet; very soon after heavy rain had ended at MDW. The Learjet ahead reported braking action as FAIR. For our landing; using MAX autobrakes; the apparent braking action was significantly less than expected from WET-GOOD. It was night so I could not clearly assess the runway condition. But from the braking action; I would estimate that there was considerable standing water on the runway; which resulted in hydroplaning during some portions of the landing rollout. Because of the reduced braking action; I continued to use reverse thrust until reaching taxi speed and exited Runway 31C at the Bravo high speed Taxiway. At the time; I reported braking action as FAIR. Later in the trip; after reviewing the FOM Braking Action Table under Braking Action Characteristics and Correlations topic; I came to the conclusion that the braking action was; more likely; actually POOR rather than FAIR. (I do not recall if the current ATIS for this landing included any reference to standing water on the runways.) For the second event; on a trip the following week; we landed on Runway 4R at MDW following rain earlier in the day; with the current ATIS stating 'ponding water.' We again used MAX autobrakes; but in this case the deceleration was substantially greater than the earlier event; allowing us to easily exit at the Papa Reverse Taxiway even after disengaging the autobrakes as early as possible during the landing rollout. From the visual appearance (daylight in this case) and the braking action obtained; the runway appeared to be dry; and we reported it as such. From these two events; along with other experience at MDW; it seems reasonable to expect standing water on the runways after significant rain. How much; if any; of course depends on how much rain fell and how long ago it ended. Further; the expected braking action could range from DRY to FAIR or even POOR; depending on how much water remains on the runways. A statement in the ATIS of 'ponding water' provides little useful information on whether a safe landing can be made; as the ATIS includes no information on how much of the runway is covered by water or to what depth. My first; and admittedly obvious; recommendation is to improve the drainage of the runways to reduce the standing water problem. Second; until that can be accomplished; I recommend that when there is standing water on the runways; the ATIS provide information on water depth and the amount of the runway covered. In this way; Pilots would have up-to-date information to use in assessing landing and takeoff performance; similar to that which is provided when snow conditions exist.

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.