I have often noticed that at planes seem to taxi at different speeds. Is there a standard speed or a speed limit, or can the captain even control this?
As far as I know, captains control it. I'm sure there's a regulation saying how fast one can taxi, but I don't know. I do know that once out of DCA, it was approaching midnight, and the captain was in a hurry because the flight was running so late (and I'm sure he wanted to get home). We were going WELL faster than I usually notice the plane taxis. I asked him about it when he left the cockpit to go to the restroom, and he just smiled and said, "It's kind of like 2AM on a stretch of highway you know. You just move faster."
It's certainly controllable, but I don't think there is any regulation (in the US) for taxi speed.
During early training, pilots are taught to taxi 'at a fast walk', but I'm not sure that applies to US air carrier (FAR Part 121) operations. As said in the other post, I'm sure taxiway congestion has a lot to do with it
Many times, the planes would land, and we would turn off into a taxiway (at a <90-degree angle of course) at still pretty high speed. Definitely no speed limit being enforced there.
I have been on several flights now where the flight informatiion channel has not been turned off and it looks like 30mph is a fairly standard speed, but I have no idea if this a regulation or not.
Many times, the planes would land, and we would turn off into a taxiway (at a <90-degree angle of course) at still pretty high speed. Definitely no speed limit being enforced there.
That's a fairly normal procedure at many airports, particularly those with a lot of traffic. In fact the "exit" from the arriving runway are referred to as high-speed taxiways. The idea is to get the aircraft that just landed off the active runway as quickly as possible to the aircraft behind it on a short final approach can land.
And then there's the very heavy (or not) airplane turning onto the very short (or not) active, where the driver feels the need to accelerate through the turn onto the runway. Happened on my very first flight (United 707, MKC-IDL) and a few less memorable ones since. It's almost like he started his takeoff roll once he had completed pushback from the gate.
'Course, that was in '62, and things have changed since
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I've been on a couple of flights on Southwest 737-200s into LAX where we taxied so fast the thrust reversers deployed as we neared the terminal. The engines really wound up to get to speed.
I "forgot" to turn off my GPS yesterday on my UAL 777 flight and we averaged about 30 mph from the runway to gate.
The taxi to/from the new Polderbaan runway at AMS can be at quite high speed - it's about 11km from there to the terminal (there's even rumours of props leaving the ground on that one).
Otherwise, LHR can have some of the most 'painful' braking in my experience - particularly if you're landing on the North Runway, and headed for T1 Dom/ROI. It feels like you're doing a handbrake turn...
I've experienced the 'accelerate through turning' thing quite a few times, too. It seemed to be very popular at KLM when I was flying with them. A particularly memorable time was flying BKK-AMS in seat 1K of a 747 - the almost-forward view (thanks to the curvature at the front of the cabin) made it appear even stranger.
A HA pilot once told me he got a speeding ticket while taxing to the reef runway at HNL.... I tried calling his bluff, but he told me he wasn't joking... To this day I always wondered about this question.
And then there's the very heavy (or not) airplane turning onto the very short (or not) active, where the driver feels the need to accelerate through the turn onto the runway.
Often because he's turning on from a fast entry-exit taxiway (oblique to the runway rather than at right angles), and possibly because he's been asked to expedite his departure to get the runway clear.
The taxi speed is laid down in each airline's Standard Operating Procedures, and they do differ, by airline and by aircraft type. Nowadays the flight recorder logs taxi speed so the pilots cannot just do what they like.
There's a well-known airline operating out of the UK (not a UK airline though) which is renowned among other commercial pilots for semingly fast taxi speeds. You can find lots of posts on www.PPRuNe.com about this.
