Originally Posted by
avidflyer
I think that was a great explanaition and spot on. The runway number is the heading and that is why every runway has 2 "numbers" one for one direction (heading) and one for the other.. If you are in the cockpit on runway "17" at MHT the compass heading would read 170. Going the other way is runway "35" or 350 on the heading.
And on the very FIRST day that a pilot sits in his very first airplane, he learns that the very LAST thing he should do before he advances the throttle(s) for takeoff is to verify that the magnetic compass heading, the gyroscopic compass heading, and the runway he thinks he is using are all exactly the same number. It seems that a couple of Comair jet jockeys might have forgotten about this basic step on an early morning departure from Lexington, KY, last year.