5 ms·
They're marked as 06 or 09, and it's impossible to have runways 60 or 90 so would be hard to make that mistake.
by cjrp 12y ago
They're marked as 06 or 09, and it's impossible to have runways 60 or 90 so would be hard to make that mistake.
- brk 12y agoFor those that wonder why it's impossible... Runway numeric designators are the compass heading of the runway, divided by 10. So, Runway 27 would be a runway oriented at 270 degrees. The other end of that runway would be runway 9 (It's 180 degrees the opposite direction, 18 lower). Therefore, a runway 60 would indicate 600 degrees, on a 360 degree arc ... :)
- falcolas 12y agoMore compass and runway fun - magnetic north moves over time, so a runway's number may change over time, despite not moving.
- sokoloff 12y agoMore random trivia. Runways are not strictly named by their magnetic headings. Chicago O'Hare has so many east-west runways that they have "mis-named" some of them: (see 10L/28R and 10C/28C, both of which are on magnetic headings of 93/273. And yes, they have a 10-Left and 10-Center, but no 10-Right. :)) http://airnav.com/airport/ORD http://airnav.com/airport/ORD
- falcolas 12y agoSounds like a side effect of the magnetic north movement. It has drifted east (in relation to the US) about 6° in the last 30 or so years, so if Chicago hasn't re-named them since laying them down, a compass alignment of ~100° becoming 93° makes sense.
- sokoloff 12y agoNo, it's the effect of having more than 3 east-west runways. 9L, 9R, 10L, and 10C. The sub-names (left, center, right) only go up to 3. Detroit Metro has the same issue with their SW/NE runways (21L, 21R, 22L, and 22R are all mutually parallel.) http://airnav.com/airport/dtw http://airnav.com/airport/dtw Atlanta Hartsfield has 5 runways, all aligned on 94.4*, named 8L, 8R, 9L, 9R, and 10: http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1405/00026AD.PDF http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1405/00026AD.PDF
- joezydeco 12y ago10R is actually under construction and will be open around October 2015. =)
- mikeash 12y agoWhen I started flying, my home airport had runway 09/27. A few years ago, it got repainted as 10/28 because of drift. Some people still slip up and call it 09/27 by accident.
- sokoloff 12y agoGenerally not the the US. Runways 1-9 are overwhelmingly labelled with a single digit in the US, and with a leading zero in most of the world.
- cjrp 12y agoOh interesting, I assumed it was an ICAO standard or something. Cheers!