Why are most runways east to west ?
Ok, I don't get this. I've now got some more experience, I've done some more land aways, and I've now flown in the USA \ Canada and Europe.
There seems a real tendency to have runways roughly located east to west. They are always 24/06 or 27/09 type layouts.
Yes I know there are north \ south or north east \ south west runways out there but it seems where ever I fly in the northern hemisphere runways are almost always *roughly* east west. Why is this ?
I was wondering if it were due to the earth rotating to the east so we were being pushed into an eastery wind. The thing is, I always seem to spend more time flying 2* runways than 0* runways.
Maybe it doesn't mean anything and it just so happens that I've flown a LOT of 2*/0* runways. I can't help feeling though, there are far far far more 2*/0* runways than anything else so what is causing this phenomena ?