How soon does a flight vector after takeoff?
Nov 5, 2001, 11:40 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Toronto, Canada AC SE
Posts: 209
How soon does a flight vector after takeoff?
Are any two approaches or takeoffs identical?
It seems to me from my observation of the the approaches into YYZ (often over my house) that no two approaches are identical until the planes get within the last two or three miles of the runway.
Is it safe to assume that no two flights take exactly the same path on take-off or do they in fact usually follow exactly the same "roadway in the sky?"
Is anyone aware of a site that actually tracks flight paths or where one could find any useful information on this question?
It seems to me from my observation of the the approaches into YYZ (often over my house) that no two approaches are identical until the planes get within the last two or three miles of the runway.
Is it safe to assume that no two flights take exactly the same path on take-off or do they in fact usually follow exactly the same "roadway in the sky?"
Is anyone aware of a site that actually tracks flight paths or where one could find any useful information on this question?
Nov 5, 2001, 1:24 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Annapolis, MD
Posts: 483
You can go to your local general aviation airport and pick up a copy of the approach plates, standard instrument arrivals (STARs), and standard instrument departures (DPs) to get the exact routing of aircraft into a given airport. The short answer to you question is that most aircraft follow a standard route that is usually very precise, especially on arrival. The final approach fix, beyond which no vectoring occurs, is usually no closer then 5nm to the airport. At busy international airports there is usually very little vectoring of inbound commercial air traffic anyway, the standard arrivals keep the flow organized and efficient. There are usually several different approaches into a given airport, however, and aircraft landing on parallel runways will fly similar headings with offset ground tracks.
Nov 5, 2001, 4:16 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Massachusetts, USA; AA Plat, DL GM and Flying Colonel; Bonvoy Platinum
Posts: 24,257
At the FT get-together in San Diego this past July we had some interesting views "behind the scenes." One was a meeting with the noise abatement folks. They showed us computer plots of the actual paths taken by several hundred flights in and out of SAN, as tracked by ground radar. Most followed the same few standard paths from the final approach fix, but there was a good deal of deviation around the centerline.
The fellow doing the presentation commented that the spread is shrinking with use of GPS. That, in turn, is leading to more noise complaints from residents directly under the center of the path. In the past, normal navigational variation kept planes somewhat spread out even if they were theoretically on the same approach path. Now they all come right down the middle - good news for folks who live a bit to the side, but pity those who get every one right overhead now!
SAN takeoffs and landings are more standardized than most others since it has just one runway (it's the world's busiest single-runway airport), winds (off the ocean) are more consistent than in most other places, and the hills directly inland from the airport constrain the flight paths. The same concepts probably apply elsewhere too, though.
The fellow doing the presentation commented that the spread is shrinking with use of GPS. That, in turn, is leading to more noise complaints from residents directly under the center of the path. In the past, normal navigational variation kept planes somewhat spread out even if they were theoretically on the same approach path. Now they all come right down the middle - good news for folks who live a bit to the side, but pity those who get every one right overhead now!
SAN takeoffs and landings are more standardized than most others since it has just one runway (it's the world's busiest single-runway airport), winds (off the ocean) are more consistent than in most other places, and the hills directly inland from the airport constrain the flight paths. The same concepts probably apply elsewhere too, though.