What Website??????????

Aharon Dayan

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What Website??????????
« on: December 03, 2018, 09:47:36 AM »
Shalom and greetings all my pals,

I have been flying on Vatsim for 10 years without problems and have been observing all rules and regulations without problems particularly the one regarding use of runway based in wind direction.

Unfortunately lately this month, I had seen bizarre unicom announcements indicating pilots' desire to land on runways that are contrary to winds' directions.

For two examples:

First example: the winds were 180 degrees for KDCA so I chose runway 19 using famous River 19 approach. However I saw on unicom other pilots indicating their intention to use runway 01. So I said on unicom "??? Winds are 180 degrees so rwy 19is choice??". Their replies were "I am using website that tells me real world approach and landings of specific runways" OKAYYYYY I changed to rwy 01.

Second example: the winds were 110 for KSFO so I picked 10L and some Vatsim pilots also indicated same runway selection BUT other Vatsim pilots said runway 28R or 27L because they said "I am using website that tells me real life approach and landings of specific runways" and that erupted into arguments among Vatsim pilots on unicom (not me as I just shut my mouth up and changed to rwy 28R to keep everybody happy because pilots were screaming "follow real world runway selections" ).

So my question is what in the heck is the website that tells people which runways planes are using in real world that seem to be contrary to wind direction?

Thanks,

Aharon

Ryan Pitt

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2018, 10:10:51 AM »
Larger airports tend to have different standard operating procedures that go against the usual procedure for selecting a runway. Most people do take a look at FlightAware or Flightradar24 to see which runways are in use; reason being is a lot of us strive for realism.
Ryan Pitt
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Ryan Parry

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2018, 11:34:12 AM »
The direction matters, but so does the velocity of the wind. If it is 110 @ 4kts, landing 10L at KSFO makes no sense. You're looking to see if the winds exceed the limitations of the aircraft you're flying. For example, at work all of our aircraft have a 10 knot tail wind limitation, meaning we can't land on a runway with a tailwind greater than 10 kts. So, using your example of DCA, we can land 01 if the winds are 190 @ 5kt, but can't land if the winds are 190 @ 11kts. There are also crosswind limitations to account for as well and they vary for each aircraft type. You can do a google search for (aircraft type) wind limitations" and figure out what they are for the plane you're flying.

Some of these people probably have access to a website that pulls the real world D-ATIS. I have access to one from work, so I use it while on the network. Not everybody has that, but what you can do it look up the D-ATIS phone number on airnav.com or fltplan.com and call it to listen to it. If that's too much hassle, just open up flight aware or flightradar24 and go to the airport and see what runway RW traffic is landing.

Last, I will mention that if ATC isn't on you can technically land whatever runway you want, regardless of if it makes sense or not. It's best to play nice and go in the direction of the other traffic, but you aren't required to do so. Have fun! 

Ryan Parry - 965346
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Derek Vento

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2018, 03:05:29 PM »
The direction matters, but so does the velocity of the wind. If it is 110 @ 4kts, landing 10L at KSFO makes no sense. You're looking to see if the winds exceed the limitations of the aircraft you're flying. For example, at work all of our aircraft have a 10 knot tail wind limitation, meaning we can't land on a runway with a tailwind greater than 10 kts. So, using your example of DCA, we can land 01 if the winds are 190 @ 5kt, but can't land if the winds are 190 @ 11kts. There are also crosswind limitations to account for as well and they vary for each aircraft type. You can do a google search for (aircraft type) wind limitations" and figure out what they are for the plane you're flying.

Some of these people probably have access to a website that pulls the real world D-ATIS. I have access to one from work, so I use it while on the network. Not everybody has that, but what you can do it look up the D-ATIS phone number on airnav.com or fltplan.com and call it to listen to it. If that's too much hassle, just open up flight aware or flightradar24 and go to the airport and see what runway RW traffic is landing.

Last, I will mention that if ATC isn't on you can technically land whatever runway you want, regardless of if it makes sense or not. It's best to play nice and go in the direction of the other traffic, but you aren't required to do so. Have fun!

Perfect response!
Derek Vento
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Host of The Traffic Pattern Podcast

Matthew Kramer

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2018, 05:18:58 PM »
Aharon,

Some pilots will also use www.flightaware.com or www.flightradar24.com to see what real airplanes are doing in the moment. You can use either site to see a live traffic map of any airport, and should be able to determine what direction they are landing.
Matthew Kramer
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Aharon Dayan

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2018, 09:06:50 AM »
Thanks all for kind replies  Yeah I use flightaware or flightradar24 website BUT I do not see such info on those 2 websites telling me which runway a plane landed UNLESS all of you are telling me the only way I will know is to look at those websites' satillette maps showing live action of planes' movements toward runways.

Matthew Kramer

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #6 on: December 06, 2018, 01:29:11 PM »
look at those websites' satillette maps showing live action of planes' movements toward runways.

Yes.
Matthew Kramer
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Szymon Puzdrowski

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #7 on: December 06, 2018, 02:52:35 PM »
You can also take out your cellphone and call the real world ATIS :)


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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2018, 08:55:10 AM »
You can also take out your cellphone and call the real world ATIS :)

Yup, taking a trip to http://airnav.com and searching for the airport will actually give you a phone number for the D-ATIS for most airports. If that doesn't work, you can also use LiveATC.
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Matthew Kosmoski

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2018, 01:26:19 PM »
You can also take out your cellphone and call the real world ATIS :)

Yup, taking a trip to http://airnav.com and searching for the airport will actually give you a phone number for the D-ATIS for most airports. If that doesn't work, you can also use LiveATC.

Probably worth adding:  This only works if it's actually D-ATIS (there aren't that many D-ATIS equipped airports around the country).  If the phone number is next to AWOS or ASOS, it's only the weather.

Tom Campagnola

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2018, 11:41:24 AM »
One thing i have noticed.... Is the text ATIS and the Verbal ATIS from airports is usually different. The written could be info V and the verbal is saying INFO C... Has anyone addressed this on X Plane?

Thanks
TOM

Matthew Kramer

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #11 on: December 09, 2018, 12:31:17 PM »
One thing i have noticed.... Is the text ATIS and the Verbal ATIS from airports is usually different. The written could be info V and the verbal is saying INFO C... Has anyone addressed this on X Plane?

Thanks
TOM

VATSIM controllers make their own ATIS and either pick a random letter or sometimes try and use whatever the real airport is using. X-Plane and FSX/P3D generate random letters for the ATIS and also always pick the runway based on best wind.

If text ATIS and Voice ATIS are different for a VATSIM controllers it's because they didn't record a new ATIS yet  :P
Matthew Kramer
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Matthew Simmons

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #12 on: December 15, 2018, 01:04:08 PM »
Thanks for your post. You may be talking about an experience you encountered with me on UNICOM (or just may be very similar with being at DCA and the same runways). As multiple people have said, lots of of strive for realism so we just attempt to follow what the real world is doing as much as possible, even if that means we don't get to have as cool of an approach or more importantly a headwind contrary to a tailwind. It's definitely your job to communicate with the other pilots on your plans. No one is going to force you to land on a certain runway unless you're at risk of colliding with them, and usually I go by the rule that the airborne planes are more important. As the other person said, if you want to check (which is what I do every flight), just pull up FlightRadar24 and spend a few seconds looking at the runway in use (and you can then prove to others that is the reason you are landing that runway and not a runway that is possibly favoring the wind ;))

Matthew Kosmoski

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #13 on: December 15, 2018, 03:00:28 PM »
and usually I go by the rule that the airborne planes are more important.

Good idea!  91.113 gives the guy on final right of way :)

Brin Brody

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Re: What Website??????????
« Reply #14 on: December 16, 2018, 09:07:46 AM »
and usually I go by the rule that the airborne planes are more important.

Good idea!  91.113 gives the guy on final right of way :)

Who reads documentation anyway, these days?
Brin Brody | VATUSA8
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