On a clear dry day many airfields transmit runway condition reports on ATIS (e.g. Runway Dry/Dry/Dry, Coverage 100%/100%/100%, Depth not reported/not reported/not reported). This doesn’t happen at commercial airfields like LHR/LGW, but at smaller GA/regional airports where single pilot ops are far more likely, it can take several minutes to obtain ATIS whilst trying to fly the aircraft and listen out on the primary ATC frequency.
Runway condition reports are of course vitally important, but surely if the runway is dry, a simple “Runway Dry” would suffice. The current lengthy report provides no helpful information at all to the pilot when weather conditions [are benign] but has the possibility of contributing to a missed RT call, or distraction at a busy phase of flight.
