Is there any tool that will tell you the active runway at your destination, so that you can start planning your arrival, without waiting to get into ATIS range?

 

Thanks

Assuming you're using real-time weather, you could always make an educated guess based on the given wind directions.

 

Although, I'm sure they'll be some more sophisticated answers for this.

If you're running something with real world weather you can always google the METAR

You can also check the World Map to find out which runways have an active ILS. With that info and a current METAR you can plan your landing with favorable winds.

 

As Alenia1 said, check the weather where you are going. I do this in my real world flying. During preflight, I load the arrival and runway into the FMS based on the weather. Most aircraft have a 10 kt tailwind limit so departure/arrival runways will most likely favor the headwinds. Not often that I found that the runways had a tail wind, if so it was not more than 5 kts.

www.checkwx.com if you are using real world weather, i use it quite a bit

Thanks everyone, sorry to be dense, but can someone help me interpret the wind direction?

 

That website shows the following for ESSA (Stockholm Arlanda) http://www.checkwx.com/weather/ESSA

 

Wind - 330 degrees at 5kts

 

So does that mean that the wind is blowing towards 330 or from 330 (towards 150) ? Presuming the desire to land into the wind, the active runway would be the closest to 33 or 15 (depending on how to interpret the METAR), yes?

If you youre using live weather then just check the atis and it will tell u the active runways for landing and takeoff i personally do that

Wind 330 degrees at 5 knots means the wind is blowing from 330 at 5 knots. Now I'm not familiar with Stockholm but looking at the runways I would say either RWY 26 gives you the best headwind but that doesn't necessarily mean it is the active the RWYs 19L/R could be active as well.

 

My home airport, Tampa International (KTPA), has a RWY 28 and a 737 is capable of landing on it but I have never seen it used and I think the only aircraft that use it are GA aircraft. So if the wind at Tampa is 280 at 8 knots then they would just use 19L/R instead of 28. Or you could have an airport like Chicago O'Hare (KORD) which seems to have some kind of SOP (at least on VATSIM) that they use particular RWYs for departures and arrivals so even though the wind favors a particular RWY they still use a different RWY. I don't know how they work it out, but that is how they do it.

Thanks, I guess educated guesswork is the best way, then a change of plan once in ATIS range, if you've made the wrong choice!

Thanks, I guess educated guesswork is the best way, then a change of plan once in ATIS range, if you've made the wrong choice!

You can also use the Shift+Z key to display windspeed/ direction.

 

Here's another link for RT Wx:

 

www.avnwx.com

 

And, if you don't have it, get FSRealWxLite... it works better than the Default.

 

Thanks all! :smile:

 

 

Wind 330 degrees at 5 knots means the wind is blowing from 330 at 5 knots. Now I'm not familiar with Stockholm but looking at the runways I would say either RWY 26 gives you the best headwind but that doesn't necessarily mean it is the active the RWYs 19L/R could be active as well.

 

In general, winds of 3 knots or less are considered to not be a factor - meaning that regardless of direction if the wind is under 3 knots the 'preferred' runway is generally the one in use.  In the case of ESSA, presuming the equipment is within the limits of runway weight and length, it would seem likely that Rwy 01 L/R would be used.  This provides for a 40 degree crosswind from the left, a bit better than the 70 degree crosswind from the right you would have using Rwy 26.  Clearly the wind speed is not so great as to override use of Rwy 26 if there were clear advantages to using this runway.  A different story altogether if the wind was at 15 or 20 knots.

For your educated guess, though you could find the current weather report for your destination airfield, you may want to have what the weather will be when you get there.  Normally the same source that gives you the current weather will give you the forecast weather.  The current weather is known as METAR and the forecasted one as TAF.  There are sites on the Internet that will also give you an interpreted version.  For example, as I write this, check the current and forecast weather for London Gatwick.  

 

 

In general, winds of 3 knots or less are considered to not be a factor

But as far as my experience with FSX goes, this does not apply for the sim. I can influence which RWY is inuse by simply changing the wind direction, even though wind spee is set to 0 and no gusts.