Runway designators, UK
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Somewhere in Southern England
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The Farnborough PAR is sadly missed. The skill of the PAR controllers was a joy to observe, particularly when they were dealing with an IMC student who was having problems holding headings or who had forgotten to synchronise the DI with the compass.
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Swindon
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As a non-commercial pilot and sorry to ask an obvious question but if it's so involved, complex and expensive - why bother? As someone else said the numbers are only an indicator so what if it's 5 degress or so out ? They are bnever 'accurate' for long anyway so as long as there's no cause for confusion with an adjacent runway can't see why they bother to keep changing them which I would think causse more confusion. Just make sure the charts and flight management computersk now the right headings ! I suppose it's someone's job ?
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: EGPH
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If runways were just called "A" and "B" for example or something which did not reference their direction would be a little harder from a pilot point of view.
When cleared to land you get "Cleared to land Rw27, wind 290/30" say. It is very straightforward to work the cross wind - 10kt more or less.
When lining up, it can nice to say 27 (Runway numbers), 27 (magnetic compass) and 27 (Nav Display) to make sure you are on the correct runway. In a light aircraft the last one would be 27 (Direction Indicator) which would prompt you to check you have set your DI correctly.
The super efficient Swiss take a more liberal line with runway designation at Zurich. Runway 34 has a QFU of 334deg, which in my book makes it runway 33!
I can't think that changing a few signs and repainting the numbers would cost much in the grand scheme of things.
When cleared to land you get "Cleared to land Rw27, wind 290/30" say. It is very straightforward to work the cross wind - 10kt more or less.
When lining up, it can nice to say 27 (Runway numbers), 27 (magnetic compass) and 27 (Nav Display) to make sure you are on the correct runway. In a light aircraft the last one would be 27 (Direction Indicator) which would prompt you to check you have set your DI correctly.
The super efficient Swiss take a more liberal line with runway designation at Zurich. Runway 34 has a QFU of 334deg, which in my book makes it runway 33!
I can't think that changing a few signs and repainting the numbers would cost much in the grand scheme of things.
Last edited by renard; 19th Feb 2013 at 16:32. Reason: spelling mistake
The super efficient Swiss take a more liberal line with runway designation at Zurich. Runway 34 has a QFU of 334deg, which in my book makes it runway 33!
