So this forum has been pretty dead lately, so I thought I'd add something just as a bit of an informational piece for people to read and discuss.
Last weekend I went to Seattle with a club I am a member of here at UND. One of the things we did was get a tour of the airport, given by a former UND grad who is now working for the airport authority there. One of the things we did was tour the ATC tower. We couldn't go up all as one group, so while 6 of us went up at a time, the rest of us stayed down and heard about some of the more unique operations about the airport. One such issue they've been having for quite some time I found quite interesting.
Seattle is in the process of expanding to build a third runway. This is taking a particularly long time because first they have to bring in a bunch of dirt from somewhere else to fill in a bit of a valley that exists so they have a place to put the third runway. They do however have one part of the expansion built, and it hs been done for a while. This is a taxiway that paralells the two existing runways.
see airport diagram
Here is the problem they are having. Because this taxiway is to the right side of runways 16 L and R, it is often mistaken as runway 16 R. I think they said as many as 5 airplanes have landed, or come close to landing on this runway. At most airports with paralell runways, the runway on the right is usually the farthest piece of pavement to the right, and the runway designated as left is all the way to the left side.
Most of the incidents happened when it had just rained and they had what they call a sun break. Because the run was out, and the sun was reflecting off the runway, it is impossible to see any of the markings on the runway.
So I figure, some of the things we could discuss are ways to avoid planes from landing on this taxiway. They already have a big lighted X on one end of the runway, but they've asked all the pilots who have landed on the taxiway about it and they all said "what X?"
Have at it. If anybody has any questions, definately post and I'll see if I can remember/find amy more information about it.
Last weekend I went to Seattle with a club I am a member of here at UND. One of the things we did was get a tour of the airport, given by a former UND grad who is now working for the airport authority there. One of the things we did was tour the ATC tower. We couldn't go up all as one group, so while 6 of us went up at a time, the rest of us stayed down and heard about some of the more unique operations about the airport. One such issue they've been having for quite some time I found quite interesting.
Seattle is in the process of expanding to build a third runway. This is taking a particularly long time because first they have to bring in a bunch of dirt from somewhere else to fill in a bit of a valley that exists so they have a place to put the third runway. They do however have one part of the expansion built, and it hs been done for a while. This is a taxiway that paralells the two existing runways.
see airport diagram
Here is the problem they are having. Because this taxiway is to the right side of runways 16 L and R, it is often mistaken as runway 16 R. I think they said as many as 5 airplanes have landed, or come close to landing on this runway. At most airports with paralell runways, the runway on the right is usually the farthest piece of pavement to the right, and the runway designated as left is all the way to the left side.
Most of the incidents happened when it had just rained and they had what they call a sun break. Because the run was out, and the sun was reflecting off the runway, it is impossible to see any of the markings on the runway.
So I figure, some of the things we could discuss are ways to avoid planes from landing on this taxiway. They already have a big lighted X on one end of the runway, but they've asked all the pilots who have landed on the taxiway about it and they all said "what X?"
Have at it. If anybody has any questions, definately post and I'll see if I can remember/find amy more information about it.
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