N639DL

A couple of weeks ago the flight I was on landed on runway 8L in ATL. We were arriving at E7 and actually exited the runway and were at a point where we would cross 8R/26L and head straight towards the gate.

Instead of crossing there, we went around the runway to the far west and then went by all of the concourses to get to Concourse E.

I'm wondering if this is a DL policy or a Hartsfield/ATC policy. I thought I saw an AirTran a/c crossing the runway.

This bothers me because we were at an ideal crossing point but we wasted at least 5 minutes to loop around the runway. We could've waited a minute or two, then crossed, and saved a lot of time. Going around was the reason why the flight arrived a few minutes late. It would've probably been a few minutes ahead of schedule.

davetravels

I can't speak for ATL, but, a couple of years ago, I had noticed that landing here at PIT - quite a few times in a row - the plane circled the whole airport, even though, if they had just gone the other way around, the DL concourse was the next one. It really appeared as though the pilots didn't know where they were going, and had to search for the DL planes or gates! I asked a pilot, and he told me that was the required traffic flow direction by the airport.

YMMV.

DT

spin2nd

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spin2nd

I could be off-base but I believe sending inbounds around taxiway 'Victor' allows uninstructed use of the parallel runway. I think nything 757 and smaller can use it - the AirTran plane may have just happened to get there in a gap in the departures or when something bigger than a 75 had to cross downfield anyways. It seems to have improved the overall flow of the airport and I suppose any time you can reduce the number of active runway crossings it is probably safer for everyone. Whenever you listen to the tower audio online it sounds like they can give them instructions for Victor exiting the runway and then it's one less thing to deal with...they manage their own way around and then become the ground controller's problem However, I do know what you mean...unless you're headed to T, A, or possibly B it can seem like it takes forever!

GW McLintock

It's KATL procedures. I had a map somewhere showing the taxi routing for arrivals and departures, if I can find it I'll post the link.

JFK has a similar situation I think; there have been times where we exited the runway around T6 or 7, and had to go the long way around to T3. Depends on the flow.

-J.

monsrt

Could be for different reasons: ATC was keeping the flow of incoming or take offs moving and didn't want to cross runway; gate was occupied and instead of blocking traffic plan went around airport to buy time; etc.

realjd

There's lots of info on taxiway Victor online: https://www.google.com/search?q=atl+taxiway+victor

They opened it to decrease the bottleneck of aircraft trying to cross runway 8R/26L. It may have taken your aircraft a few extra minutes but it makes airport operations run better as a whole.

Throw Down Your Leavy Screens

As a couple of other posters have said, it's the procedures/benefits of using TWY "V". TWY V is depressed by (I think) 30 feet from the end of RWY 8R so that taxiing planes don't encroach into the approach surface and clear zones of RWY 8R. Of course ATL does not use 8R as an arrival runway, but it's related to the FAA regulations governing runway operations. Also it's so that ground control doesn't have to coordinate the departure of a plane on 8R/26L with taxiing traffic. TWY V allows 8R/26L departures to occur independently of taxiing traffic.

If you're on the left side of the plane as it's taxiing on TWY V, look out and you'll see that the localizer antenna array for RWY 26L is on stilts. A localizer is about 6 feet tall, so use that as the reference for seeing how tall the stilts are, or how depressed TWY V is. Another great vantage point for seeing how the TWY V ballet works is from the windows at the C-40 Skyclub.

I've landed on 8L/26R many times, and I'd say that my plane uses TWY V most of the time. The odds of using TWY V increase dramatically when there are more departures. I consider it a lucky day when my flight does not use TWY V.

mridley2

perhaps i'm directionally challenged. but how the hell do you know which runway you're landing or taking off from? LOL sorry stupid question perhaps..

stils

You roll down your window and peek your head out. The numbers and letters are written on the pavement.

FlyDeltaJets87

If you're familiar with the airport layout, knowing which runway you're taking off from isn't too difficult to figure out (for ATL or any airport really),

For ATL, the two runways on the north side of the airport are 8L/26R and 8R/26L. 8L/26R is used for landings and 8R/26L is used for takeoffs. There are three runways south of the terminals: 9L/27R (used for takeoffs), 9R/27L (used for landings) and 28/10 to the far south (the one with the I-285 tunnel), used for landings.

If you can orient yourself, knowing which runway you're taking off is really easy, especially if you can figure out how to orient yourself, which at ATL is easy. All five runways are east-west. The Concourses run North/South (the one exception being part of E), with the low number gates at the South end of the concourse and the high number gates at the North end. You can also orient yourself by facing the control tower - the control tower is east of all Concourses except F.

You can also use Google-Maps satellite view to orient yourself to the layout of the airport and be able to see what landmarks you're taxiing past and then know which runway and direction you're using for takeoff.

And of course, when you've landed at ATL enough, you'll be able to determine which runway you're landing on before you even land based on how far away Downtown and Stone Mountain are, what's right below you, where you are in relation to I-285, how many other planes you can see on approach, etc.

Throw Down Your Leavy Screens

If Stone Mountain and downtown Atlanta are visible out the right side of the plane, and you've made a turn for final approach right above a large regional mall, you're on a westbound approach. If you see a huge quarry out the right side of the plane and mountains and power plant smoke plumes far off in the distance out the left side, you're on an eastbound approach.

From there, you can determine which runway you're on:

Airport runway numbers are based on magnetic compass headings divided by 10. Since all 5 of ATL's runways run due east/west, the compass headings are all 90 or 270. Eastbound landings are on the 90 heading, and westbound landings are on the 270 heading. Divide those by 10, and you get runways 9 and 27.

However, since ATL has 5 parallel runways, they can't ALL be variations of 9/27. So for simplicity, the pair of runways closest to downtown Atlanta (Delta HQ and the Renaissance hotel are clearly visible) are renumbered 8/26. Since they're a pair, they are further subdivided into Left and Right, as viewed from the perspective of an arriving plane. 8L/26R is the arrival runway, and 8R/26L is the departure runway.

The mirror image is true on the south side of the terminal, only the runway numbers here use 9/27. 9L/27R is the departure runway, and 9R/27L is the arrival runway.

Runway 10/28 is off by itself and has the bridge over I-285. It's generally used as an arrival runway so that 3 planes can land simultaneously in bad weather, but I have taken off from it once.

davetravels

Very interesting, I always wondered how that worked. I had a handful of flying lessons a number of years ago, so I knew how the runway numbers lined up with the compass - - So, are you saying that 8L/26R - 8R/26L & 10/28 actually line up with 9/27 on the compass, but are numbered differently for identification purposes, or, are you saying that they are actually slightly askew of parallel, lining up with their respective numbers on the compass?

Down3Green

They are all exactly parallel with eachother. To be technical, 8L/R, 9L/R, and 10 are all exactly oriented at 094.4 degrees magnetic heading (though that changes ever so slightly with time).

Several other posters have nailed the answer to the OP. The opening of TWY V several years ago did wonders for increasing the efficiency of the operation and cut down on the frequency of runway incursions. At very light periods of the day with no one holding for departure on 8R, they will still let You cross at Twy D/C on occasion.

They have a 'poor man's' method of doing this on the southside as well when we are departing/landing on 9L/R. What ATC does is have all departures takeoff from an intersection on 9L with TWY M2. What this does is leave TWY P clear at the far west end and allows inbound traffic to cross there without affecting departures. If a very heavy jet requires the full length of 9L for departure, it is still available.

davetravels

Again, I only have the teeny, tiniest bit of flight training (years ago) . . . So, if a pilot who isn't familiar with ATL is trying to land on 8L, but the runway is actually on heading 94.4, how does that work out?