What Runway? ? ?

[Lensmeister]

Hi guys,

Next week being school holidays I am hoping to take our lass to LHR, LGW and/or LCY so she can test out our old camcorder.

I know it depends on the wind but what are the booked runways at the above airports? Also how would I find out?


Also Cargo .... are there schedules printed on pdf anywhere?

We're taking my laptop with rtl1090 and adsbSCOPE to log our sightings. so I hope to post a log of what we see there.

Thanks for the help in advance.

[fungus]

Hi guys,

Next week being school holidays I am hoping to take our lass to LHR, LGW and/or LCY so she can test out our old camcorder.

I know it depends on the wind but what are the booked runways at the above airports? Also how would I find out?


Also Cargo .... are there schedules printed on pdf anywhere?

We're taking my laptop with rtl1090 and adsbSCOPE to log our sightings. so I hope to post a log of what we see there.

Thanks for the help in advance.

I'm not at all sure what you mean by 'booked runways' as the active runway/s on any given day will be selected by ATC at the individual airport with certain factors in mind including (and particularly), as you say, the wind direction and can change during the course of a day. They arent booked in advance but if you zoom in on the map you can view the available runways (they are all marked at both ends so the pilot can see when landing on the wrong one). In general an aircraft will take off and land into the wind although they can do some fancy cross-wind dances from time to time. As an example Rwy 09 will have a 90 degrees heading (roughly) and if in use aircraft will land heading almost 90 degrees (due east). Add a zero to the runway heading to get its direction. Rwy 27 will be 270 degrees or roughly due west.

If you possess a scanner you can listen to the ATIS (weather report etc for each airport, if you know the frequency and can be looked up on the net). These broadcasts indicate the runway in use at the time and will reflect any changes. You may need to use caution with a scanner at an airport over there as laws are somewhat different to here and other countries.

If you check the map's blue dots (or METAR sites on the net) before you head off, or while you're there with the lappy if you have net access or one of those mobile devices you'll find out the active runway/s (runway/s in use) and you'll get the weather thrown in as well if you can interpret it. There are sights which express these messages in a more reader friendly (english) version as well. I'll try to dig up a few sites and post to assist.

LHR; http://en.allmetsat.com/metar-taf/en....php?icao=EGLL
LGW; http://en.allmetsat.com/metar-taf/en....php?icao=EGKK
LCY; http://en.allmetsat.com/metar-taf/en....php?icao=EGLC

The wind direction on these links will give you an idea of the the active runway until I can come up with something better as my old ATIS search site is no longer available.

This site seems to give up to date information on weather, METAR's, NOTAM's etc;
EGLL (LHR) http://www.ourairports.com/airports/...ilot-info.html
EGKK (LGW) http://www.ourairports.com/airports/...ilot-info.html
EGLC (LCY) http://www.ourairports.com/airports/...ilot-info.html

In these messages you may see something like the following:
'21010KT' which means the wind is from 210 degrees at 10 knots. In this case they might likely use runway 27 if for example this was at EGLL (LHR). Unfortunately it doesnt tell you whether left or right and that's where a scanner can help.

You should also be able to see on the map which runway is being used.

As for cargo schedules, good luck as they arent easy but hopefully you can use the FR24 map and database to assist there. After watching a particular area for some time you tend to get to know the schedules. Unfortunately I cant help with over there, perhaps somebody else can do.

Hope you find this useful,
Regards,
Gregg

[Lensmeister]

Thanks Fungus, I will check the FR24 on the morning.

I'll have a look at those sites tonight