Hi Guys

 

How do you go about determining the active runway either for departure or arrival, especially at an airport with several runways.

 

For example, I'm sat at the gate at Boston, and I've tuned the ATIS. I've been told "landing and departing runway 15L and 15R".

 

So presumably in the real world, this would be one for departures and one for arrivals, in normal operations? How do I then determine which one to use (without waiting for the AI traffic to start taxiing and seeing which they use) ?

 

Same question on arrival, when I fly airliners I normally tune the ATIS at about 150 miles away from my destination, then when I get in range it will tell me which runways are in use. But again, how would I know whether to set up for a 15R or 15L approach? I just guess normally, but it really ruins the immersion when you are just about to land and there is an AI aircraft about to take off on your landing runway! (I don't use FSX ATC)

 

Any tips much appreciated!

Only way I know is to contact atc and get taxi instructions. If you do not use fsx atc and atis has several runways for departure then go to any runway and takeoff as there is no other way and it would be illegal if you tried anything else.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Like Jim says...

 

Tune Your com radio to the airports ATIS and listen.

If no ATIS is available, then the airport/airfield is probably small and only contains a single runway. Select the direction You will take off from to give You a headwind.

 

FinnJ

As the above posters have suggested, or  you can use you weather addon  to see what the wind direction  there is  and than decide what rwy  is best to use

Considering parallel runway operations, you're probably out on a limb:

 

Most AFCAD files are 'generic', so ATC will use both runways for takeoffs AND for landings.

 

Sometimes AFCAD files can be switched (like for Aerosoft's EHAM and LEMD) or 'randomized' (like for Aerosoft's ENGM v2.0) for more realistic operations (different runway assignments for takeoffs and landings), but these are really rare occurances ...

 

Your last chance probably is to use a freeware editor and learn how to edit AFCAD files yourself.

This is why real world pilots contact ATC :wink:

Way I do it is simply go to satellite view while at the gate, and see the runway aircraft are taking off from.

Like Olli said as default FSX has it that both parallel's are active for both arrivals and departures. So in your case in FSX you could use either 15L or 15R. I haven't used default ATC in a while but I believe it assigns you one runway but there is an option to request the other parallel runway. Same with the arrivals.

 

IRL with parallel runways it varies airport to airport. For instance at EGLL I think they assign one runway for departures and the other for arrivals switching at some point in the day.

 

At YSSY both are used for arrivals and departures and are assigned depending on aircraft size and destination.

 

At KLAX with each pair of parallel runways the inner is used for departures (I think) and the outter used for arrivals.

 

also depending on spacing and winds it's possible to use runways with traffic in opposite direction ie Departures on 15L and arrivals on 33L.

 

As I usually fly sans ATC in FSX usually with parallel runways if sufficient legnth I'll use the longer one for departing and arriving on the shorter runway. If they're both equal legnth it usually comes down to what ever closer to the stand I'm using.

Basically what it comes down to is reading procedures for the airport. I'll give you a quick way to pick a runway if you don't like FSX ATC (I don't) and there are no VATSIM/IVAO controllers in your area.

 

Check the wind. You always land into the wind if you can. Pick the runway most aligned with the wind direction (i.e. If the wind reports 12006, land on runway 12. Or whatever is closest and of appropriate length). Is this how it always works in the real world? NO. Here's why:

 

Many airports (all airports?) have proceedures for choosing the safest/most effective active runways. For example, an airport may be landing/departing North with southerly wind if it is less than say 5kts (just an example). As far as landing and departing runways, that's based on an airport flow if there are multiple runways. Look it up is basically all I can tell ya here.

 

So, to keep it simple, just pick the runway based on wind. Or you can kick it up a notch and do some research for the airport!

 

Thanks,

 

Chase