Runway alignment

Irish_Armada

Irish_Armada

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Oct 8, 2011
Messages
374
Display Name
Irish Armada
Sitting here at LAX listening to ATC and waiting for my flight home, and it got me thinking: LAX has runways 24L/R and 25L/R but they look parallel to each other on the diagram. Do airports use different runway #s to avoid confusion even when they are perfectly parallel to each other, or did they design these runways to be angled slightly differently so that they could accurately label them as 24 and 25, and I just can't see it on the diagram?
 
Three is the limit.

9L, 9C, 9R

If ya want a fourth or more east west runway how else could you do it? 9CL would be confusing and guaranteed pilots would land on the wrong runway.

So for the fourth they'd split it into two pairs. 9L , 9R and 10L, 10R. That gets you to six parallel runways and I don't know of any airport with that many so it works well.
 
Captain said:
Three is the limit.

9L, 9C, 9R

If ya want a fourth or more east west runway how else could you do it? So for the fourth they'd split it into two pairs. 9L , 9R and 10L, 10R. That gets you to six parallel runways and I don't know of any airport with that many so it works well.
Click to expand...

O'Hare will have 5 soon, and the sixth won't be too far behind.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
O'Hare will have 5 soon, and the sixth won't be too far behind.
Click to expand...

I really miss ORD. That place is awesome the amount of planes they push. Lack of terrain helps but stil they do an amazing job!
 
3 parallels north of the terminals, and three more to the south. It's the reason why the SW cargo complex underwent the reconfiguration it had.
 
Captain said:
Three is the limit.

9L, 9C, 9R

If ya want a fourth or more east west runway how else could you do it? 9CL would be confusing and guaranteed pilots would land on the wrong runway.

So for the fourth they'd split it into two pairs. 9L , 9R and 10L, 10R. That gets you to six parallel runways and I don't know of any airport with that many so it works well.
Click to expand...

KDEN 16R (16K x 200), 16L, 17R, 17L
 
MarkZ said:
3 parallels north of the terminals, and three more to the south. It's the reason why the SW cargo complex underwent the reconfiguration it had.
Click to expand...

Not to mention relocating an entire cemetery.
 
It seems really rare, but there are some 3 digit runway numbers.

Palmdale has 72/252 in addition to 7/25.
 
My comment is DFW covers so much land that the mag variation probably changes from one side to another :).

IAD used to have a 11/29 parallel to 12/30 (for the longest time you could see the ghost of it in the middle of Taxiway N (now Q in the FAA idiotic taxiway renaming strategy).
 
I was at ATL years ago, it was rather windy. A pilot checked on approach and asked for 'rwy 26 due to winds'. If it had been different than 27 it would have been slightly better with the current winds.

Approach granted the request and didn't use any freq time to explain it all.
 
sourdough44 said:
I was at ATL years ago, it was rather windy. A pilot checked on approach and asked for 'rwy 26 due to winds'. If it had been different than 27 it would have been slightly better with the current winds.

Approach granted the request and didn't use any freq time to explain it all.
Click to expand...

The pilot was kidding. Had to be.

I heard SouthWest report moderate chop and request direct. Gave me a chuckle and he got it.
 
Last edited:
Irish_Armada said:
Sitting here at LAX listening to ATC and waiting for my flight home, and it got me thinking: LAX has runways 24L/R and 25L/R but they look parallel to each other on the diagram. Do airports use different runway #s to avoid confusion even when they are perfectly parallel to each other, or did they design these runways to be angled slightly differently so that they could accurately label them as 24 and 25, and I just can't see it on the diagram?
Click to expand...


Our runways are actually parallel at LAX. The other question that gets asked in the same thought is since 25 is to the south and 24 to the north, at what point do the flight paths intersect? :)
 
Old Fart said:
Our runways are actually parallel at LAX. The other question that gets asked in the same thought is since 25 is to the south and 24 to the north, at what point do the flight paths intersect? :)
Click to expand...

Runways 4L and 4R at ORD are NOT truly parallel. The extended centerlines intersect ~46nm southwest of the airport. All the other existing runways and future runways at ORD are truly parallel.

Runway 10R-28L is scheduled to be commissioned on 10/15/15. The South ATCT is substantially complete and the FAA will be installing/testing their equipment until commissioning.

Runway 9C-27C will be the last runway as part of the O'Hare Modernization Program. It'll be located 1,600' north of existing Runway 9R-27L and be built to ADG-VI (A380, B747-8) standards just like Runway 10C-28C.
 
Everskyward said:
It's not quite there yet according to the airport diagram.

http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1410/00166AD.PDF
Click to expand...

Yep. The confusion and effort of having to repaint the numbers, rename the runway and all associated procedures was greater than the confusion of having a Left, center, but no right.

Everskyward said:
Then there is KXNA which only has two parallel runways, but they are numbered differently.

[URL]http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1410/09274AD.PDF[/URL]
Click to expand...

IIRC that's a temporary situation to accomodate landing traffic while the original single runway is being rebuilt. Eventually the new runway will downgrade back to a taxiway. If you check the NOTAMs, runway 16/34 and associated approaches is closed.
 
Years ago I was a flight instructor at a small airport in West Virginia. Another little town had its runway repaved. (state senators mother lived there, no planes based there, no hangers, no buildings of any kind) It was re-numbered as 6/27.

A week later the 6 was repainted to a 9.
 
Brad Z said:
IIRC that's a temporary situation to accomodate landing traffic while the original single runway is being rebuilt. Eventually the new runway will downgrade back to a taxiway. If you check the NOTAMs, runway 16/34 and associated approaches is closed.
Click to expand...
Right. We discussed that in a thread a few months ago. However, as far as I can see, there was no particular reason to number the runways like that instead of L and R.
 
Pilawt said:
If there's an 'X' painted on one end of a runway, shouldn't 'XXVIII' be painted on the other ... ?

:dunno:
Click to expand...

This would be awesome lmao! "Bugsmasher 123, cleared to land, runway X-Ray X-Ray Victor India India India.":D
 
NickC99 said:
This would be awesome lmao! "Bugsmasher 123, cleared to land, runway X-Ray X-Ray Victor India India India.":D
Click to expand...

"Winds CCX at XV gusting XXI. Advise on initial contact you have information Ceasar."
 
Zeldman said:
Years ago I was a flight instructor at a small airport in West Virginia. Another little town had its runway repaved. (state senators mother lived there, no planes based there, no hangers, no buildings of any kind) It was re-numbered as 6/27.

A week later the 6 was repainted to a 9.
Click to expand...

Was it this guy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmgice3ieZ4

:D


Mike
 
Doggtyred said:
Assault strips are identified by the true heading, not rounded to the nearest 10 degrees.

Here are two resources besides the JEPP or NOS that show the nomenclature. Perhaps if you looked in a DOD/FLIP you'd have seen them, as they are for military use.

http://www.aopa.org/airports/KPMD/kneeboard.pdf

http://www.airnav.com/airport/kpmd
Click to expand...
Very interesting. There's a strip used for assault ops near Charlotte, KVUJ Stanley Co. It does not seem to have the 3 digit numbering but I'm guessing that's because it is okay for civvies to use the (shorter parallel) strip. Only the mil ramp is restricted.

Interesting airport with the 2 parallel runways. The short one is for C130 practice for the most part it seems.
 
Everskyward said:
Right. We discussed that in a thread a few months ago. However, as far as I can see, there was no particular reason to number the runways like that instead of L and R.
Click to expand...

There is. When the original runway opens back up and the parallel is converted to a taxiway, they won't need to rename the sole runway, and it's associated approaches.
 
Brad Z said:
There is. When the original runway opens back up and the parallel is converted to a taxiway, they won't need to rename the sole runway, and it's associated approaches.
Click to expand...
OK, that makes sense.
 
The story is that Rucker Tibbs was being harassed for many years to paint runway numbers on the ends of the runways at W90. When he finally relented he used roman numerals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top