I flew to Amsterdam on tuesday and flew back out on wednesday, can someone explain to me why it takes ages and ages to taxi to the runway?? Schiphol is a big airport and has lots of runways so why the long taxi times?
I've being doing AMS-BRS and back again 16-18 times a year for three years or more...
Caveat - no, I know 50 deps + 50 arrs isn't a representative sample
...But my observations (and best guess at reasoning) would be as follows:
If the wind's coming out of the NE quadrant, you're more than likely going to land on 06 because that means you end up next to the terminal. Anything else other than a strong NW and you're gonna land on 18R.
If the wind's coming out of the SW quadrant, you're more than likely going to take off on 24 because that starts next to the terminal. Anything else other than a strong SE and you're gonna take off on 36L.
In those three years (including some AMS - LTN - AMS and some AMS - LHR - AMS) we have never once used 18C/36C (this seems, when in use, to always have almost entirely KLM traffic), 27, 18L, 36R or 22/04 (which is probably for cargo?).
We've landed on 09 once, in the snow early this year - the airport was shut the next morning due to the amount of snow so perhaps 36L/18R (which is known as the Polderbaan) or the taxiways to it were o/s.
Completing the picture I think we've only once landed on 36L and if we've ever taken off on 06 I've forgotten it.
Of course the above could be complete b******s but I'll be very surprised if it doesn't work as above this Fri/Sun on my next trip (so, if MetCheck is right, lucky us will be both going out and coming back on the Polderbaan).
Cheers,
Rich.