It's definitely not a perfect geographic 'split'. I too have done DCA/IAD to ATL and the approaches are to and from the south runways. But almost all DCA traffic would approach the same set of runways during the same time period. ATL is blessed with equal long runways, ORD's arangements dictate that long-range heavies can only use a few of the runways, creating joy for the controllers. YVR's north runway (8L) has a 10pm curfew which I've been caught in several times. UA's ORD-YVR flight is sometimes early and Vancouver Centre indicates an 8L approach. A recent arrival: Tower: UA1035, We've got a 10pm curfew, so, make your visual approach to 8L, but lean to the right, we might need to do 8R. UA1035: 8L, but possible 8R. 10pm curfew? Tower: Noise abatement, and they take it very seriously. ... Tower: UA1035, you're cleared 5,000 feet but my computer indicates wheels down at 9:59:42. I doubt you'll clear it 18 sceonds. 8R it is. UA1035: 8R, Visual Approach. Tower: Cleared to land... Sorry about 8L. Pain in the butt, 8R to the USA gates is a LONG way. I've also had this exchange on departure out of YVR and the stupid 8L runway. UA1035: Ground, request push back and request departure on 8L Tower: Push back approved, but you'll be a few years waiting for 8L. UA1035: Years? Tower: They don't let us use it for departures. I've actually taken off at 2:30am on 8L in the middle of a blizzard in an AC340-300, but I do recall that everyone seemed to deem it as a special circumstance: They were using the one or two snow plows that YVR has on the south runway. -----Original Message----- From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of W Wilson Sent: January 4, 2002 9:46 AM To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU Subject: Re: Lax south runways can they handle a 747? LOL..I wouldn't say all and never cross....With ATL this is not true..to/from points north ...they do use the south complex runways. (in my case DCA/BWI/IAD) And from points south, I have landed many times on the nouth complex. (looking at my logs, 12 of my last 20 commercial flights into/out of ATL show me landing and/or departing on the opposite complex.) This is interesting because one would think this would be an airport where the system would be untilized to the max. I first found this out in the early 80s when ramp control cleared aircraft to push "tail south" out of the gate for a south departure and "tail north" for a north departure. I recall mentioning to my father who was with me something to the effect that this makes no sense. Walter DCA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matthew Montano" <mmontano@direct.ca> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 02:33 Subject: Re: Lax south runways can they handle a 747? > All airports with multiple simultaneous active runways do the same > thing. > > ATL's parallel runways make it easy to picture. Anything to/from the > north'ish uses the northern pair and visa-versa for the south. The > paths never cross. > > ORD's plan is decidedly more complex. I've done a ORD-YVR departing > off of 4L with a heading of 090 due to winds. We reached 15,000 ft > about 10 minutes still going straight east. Overhead on channel 9 was > even the pilot reminding ATC that we were heading to *Vancouver*. > > YYZ's archaic runway layout will make it feel like you are driving > half way to your destination if you are flying AC and departures are > to the east-north-east. > > Amazingly these taxi-times based on active runway selections are built > into the scheduled times that you'll find on a Flight Status website. > > Matthew > > > -----Original Message----- > From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of > Mark Greenwood > Sent: January 3, 2002 10:00 PM > To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU > Subject: Re: Lax south runways can they handle a 747? > > > I believe the choice of runway for departure and arrival is determined > by the origin/destination of the aircraft. Every time I have flown to > the South Pacific ex LAX we have always departed from and arrived back > on the south runways. Flight to Asia and Europe have always arrived > and departed on the north runways. > > Mark > > W Wilson wrote: > > > Absolutely....7R/25L is actually longer than the other parallel on > > the > > > southside at 11,096 feet. (the inner south runway 7L/25R is 12,091 > > feet). Your concern is notable however. It's more based on > > procedure at airports with two sets of parallels on each side of the > > airport. Normal ops include allowing aircraft to depart on the inner > > parallels while landing (usually) on the outer parallels allowing > > greater separation on approach. So for whatever reason..."they" > > decided to depart from 25L. It could also be to expedite the > > departure of traffic behing the KAL 747, so they moved it on over to > > the other side > > > to make room, amongst a couple more operational considerations. > > > [snip] >