Question 2: FS ATC and Houston Runway 33R

[SteveLewis 0]

Why is it that if you fly out of Houston Intercontinental in FS9 you almost always are assigned runway 33R? It's the furthest runway from the terminal, for cryin' out loud! I sat in a line of 12 aircraft today trying to take off from 33R: All of the arrivals were on 33R also. You get 33R even if you have a wind from 145 at 9 knots!! I fly out of KIAH a lot and have never been assigned runway 15L. The only time I wasn't assigned runway 33R, I was assigned runway 9! Is there some way you can edit the primary choice of runway?Steve Lewis, KCLE

[Guest damnlimey]

Try a judicious application of AFCAD. I went there last night and closed 33R/15L for take-off. That way (with real weather showing a light wind from 155) I was directed to takeoff from 9 and all arriving ILS traffic was on 15L. Only trouble was that with Project AI's Continental flight packs installed and AI traffic maxed out, incoming planes weren't clearing the runway fast enough, resulting in 1 out of 3 arriving flights being called to "go around". I guess this is a busy airport! I know it's the home base for Continental. I guess I need more gates for all those planes to go to.Happy (con)trails

[SteveLewis 0]

Thanks. In my case, with Project AI's Continental package, ATC wants us all to use 33R almost all of the time -- even when the wind was 150/9kts! I was 12th in line last weekend. Took me almost 40 minutes waiting on landing traffic to get to the head of the line! And this was with a 9 kt tailwind. Anyway, with 3 major runways to choose from it was only using 33R for some reason. There was no traffic at all on 9/27 or 8/26. With light winds, it would be nice to have take offs on, say, 15L, 8, and 9 depending upon your destination and departure gate. Maybe later that'll be available. For now, what we've got is so much better than FS2002 I'll take it and be happy.Steve

[Guest SWA1058]

I live 3 nm under the 27 approach at KIAH and can tell you a little about the operations that I have observed. It seems that most of the time, all departures are on 15L and 15R, while arrivals are almost always on 26L, 26R, and 27. Sometimes, the winds change things around, but I believe that what I have described is the preferred routing of ATC. Can anyone tell me if there is a way to add runways or get updates that will include new runways?