Runways at Schiphol
 

Hello all,

typing from the bar in my hotel in Dublin where I'm enjoying a few days away (aer lingus from eham, if anyone's interested - nothing extraordinary but good enough for a short hop).

Here's my question: for those of us whose sense of direction sometimes just doesn't work (mine gets reset in airport terminal buildings), when you're taxying about, is there a quick and easy way of knowing which runway you're on?

I flew here on Tuesday and couldn't figure out whether we took off from the Kaagbaan or Aalsmeerbaan. Ok, if I knew all the operational ins and outs (e.g. that all landings on the Polderbaan are from the North) then I could probably have narrowed it down - but I was wondering if it was deduceable from the myriad signs and stuff that we see from the windows between the gate and the runway.

Many thanks in advance! :ok:

Look here and rewind to your exact time of departure. Provided Aer Lingus fitted their aircraft with ADS-B you should be able to see yourself depart :ok:

Yes. It's written on it in a large font.

Well, seeing as I don't get to sit in the pointy end, I can't see that, so I'm wondering if I can deduce it from other clues along the way :)

First of all, in aviation we don't refer to runways as Kaagbaan or Aalsmeerbaan of course. If you have a window seat you can see marker boards on the side of the taxiway indicating the runway you're about to enter, for example 09/27, in white on a red background.

Was it a short or long taxi out to the runway? If short then you would have gone off R24. If long then you would have gone off R36L to the north. Taxi time would have been something in the order of 15 minutes or so. Both runways are favoured for Westerly bound traffic.

On the way back in expect to land on R18R for a southerly wind and another 15 minute taxi onto stand. R18C if you are very lucky as that is preferred for arrivals from the East. On rare occasions you might land on R27 if the wind is favouring that and a shortish taxi in. If a northerly wind then should be R06 and another very short taxi in.

Integrated Aeronautical Information Package the Netherlands

There are some pretty good PDF maps at the end of the page that you can print off and follow as you go. There are similar sites for the UK and Ireland and some others.

I often carry one of these as I habitually note landing runway and taxi route because....well mainly because I'm an unusual sort of fellow but this isn't about me !

Bring a compass.

Right, I'm back in .nl and sitting in a train on my way home :D

TightSlot - thanks very much for that link! It answered my question perfectly and came up with lots more information which appeals to my inner geek.

Avman - you're right of course. My main reason for using the Dutch names was that I've been sloppy on learning about how runway designations work. But Wikipedia has enlightened me, so thank you for the reminder :)

S1E - oooooooooooh :8 thanks!

potkettleblack - I'm pretty sure we both took off and landed on the Kaagbaan, which, uh...

*looks up eham runway numbers*

...I think we took off from 06 and landed on 24. The latter puzzled me because the captain said that local conditions included a north-west wind. I thought that flights would land into the wind if at all possible - but am I misinformed on this one?

(I don't think any of the runways at eham go in a nw direction!)

The majority of flights I've been on out of eham have taken off (and landed, I believe) from the Polderbaaan (36L and 18R?). Normally I'm quite good at orienting myself from the terminal buildings (and when on approach, where the North Sea is :D ), but I'm not used to the layout to the east of the airport.

Anyhows - thanks very much for the constructive help. It's much appreciated :ok:

neroliie, were you in a FK-50 or smaller a/c? They are likely to be the only a/c occasionally landing on 24. Traffic permitting - to shorten taxy times, KLC commuters are sometimes cleared to break off their ILS approach to 27 for a visual to 24. 24 is almost exclusively used for departures and 06 for arrivals. I think that it's quite likely that you departed 24 and came back on 06.

Just checked this map, and you're quite right. I got them the wrong way round!

Edit: no, it was an airbus somethingorother (saw it on the safety card and promptly forgot :rolleyes: ), but not a very large one.

It was an Airbus 320.