A be-400XP crew could not see the runway at minimums; resulting in a missed approach and diversion. ...

Narrative:

Upon arrival at destination; a diversion was executed to low ceilings and heavy rain. The visibility and ceilings were reported such that an approach should be successful. However; after reaching the MDA and map; we could not locate the runway. It was mostly due to the lower than reported ceilings; yet the visibility through the windshield was so poor due to the rain; it would have been tough to see the runway with high ceilings in a light-heavy rain condition. The repellent had obviously failed to shed any water to make visibility acceptable in amount of rain. Not sure if there is a schedule for reapplication of the special rain repellent used on the beechjet planes; but it would be a good idea to make it part of a routine maintenance cycle (say; between a certain duration of time on the plane or calendar time). Also; if there was a recommended test we could perform as a flight crew as a preflight inspection when accepting the aircraft or before flight to/from airports with forecast or actual rain conditions; that would help alleviate a possible emergency situation and perhaps any unnecessary diversions.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A BE-400XP crew could not see the runway at minimums; resulting in a missed approach and diversion. Reporter stated the rain repellent system failed to clear the windshield during heavy rain.

Narrative: Upon arrival at destination; a diversion was executed to low ceilings and heavy rain. The visibility and ceilings were reported such that an approach should be successful. However; after reaching the MDA and MAP; we could not locate the runway. It was mostly due to the lower than reported ceilings; yet the visibility through the windshield was so poor due to the rain; it would have been tough to see the runway with high ceilings in a light-heavy rain condition. The repellent had obviously failed to shed any water to make visibility acceptable in amount of rain. Not sure if there is a schedule for reapplication of the special rain repellent used on the BeechJet planes; but it would be a good idea to make it part of a routine maintenance cycle (say; between a certain duration of time on the plane or calendar time). Also; if there was a recommended test we could perform as a flight crew as a preflight inspection when accepting the aircraft or before flight to/from airports with forecast or actual rain conditions; that would help alleviate a possible emergency situation and perhaps any unnecessary diversions.

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	968240
Time
Date	201109
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Beechjet 400
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Rain Repellent System
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

A be-400XP crew could not see the runway at minimums; resulting in a missed approach and diversion. Reporter stated the rain repellent system failed to clear the windshield during heavy rain.