Herb687

Departing to the south at SFO is quite exciting! The one and only flight in recent memory where I took off from 19 was amazing: windly blustery morning at SFO, ceiling about 3500'-4000', AA 757 to DFW. The 757 was airborne before crossing 28R and we made our first power reduction before crossing the Bayshore Freeway. A couple seconds or so after that we were in the clouds and started the left turn. While looking straight ahead at the Millbrae hills might be a little unnerving when lining up for departure on 19, that 757 sure can climb!!!

goalie

i've done that as well and it is exciting but try driving on 101 south when one of the "big birds" either takes off from rnwy 19 or lands on rnwy 1.....now that's a trip. i also landed on 19r yesterday (feb, 27) with a "nice crosswind" right at touchdown but i've also had the pleasure of doing the vor bravo approach thru san bruno valley and landing on 10r-now that's weird.....

mot29

My last two arrivals at ONT on Jan. 2 and Feb. 22 were also reversed. Generally you land at ONT from the east heading west. Because of winds, I think these two arrivals were from the west heading east.
tom

spotwelder

The operation at LAX takes a higher tailwind component than most runways to keep operations coming in to land towards the West if possible. It can be absolutely chaotic turning the runways round at LAX. I watched them try to do it from the back of the control tower one day. I saw the closest thing to a mobile accident going on with a visual approach in a DC-10 from Hawaii with the high tailwind and trying to get down before the runways were turned round. Chose the shortest runway, landed long (as you do with a tailwind) landed fast and it got very noisy with reverse, blue smoke and as I watched the aircraft turn off the end of the runway, differential reverse thrust. Novel, effective and worrying at the same time. I had even started my stopwatch and was reaching for my pen with my spare hand to take notes for the accident board.

The parallel approach system as described earlier with the different initial altitudes is the standard way of doing it. The use of SODPROPS is uncommon to say the least (Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway Operations) but it is the highest priority operational mode at Sydney for environmental reasons. The aircraft approach 34L and depart 16L, and if memory serves me right here, the initial departure heading of 155 degrees then changes to a left turn of around 115 degrees or so. This means that the aircraft should fly away from one another. Do not look at the published flightpath confinement areas if you want to rest easy on those flights, they actually overlap!

I have never done the ocean approach into LAX but I would much rather do that than the overland high tailwind case anyday of the week.

For the record, LHR does quite a lot of parallel approaches between 0600 and 0700 every day, again if memory serves. I cannot be bothered to get up that early and check! Give me a couple of weeks and I am sure that I will have an early arrival into LHR from somewhere far, far away.

Happy landings (and only one of them off each approach...)

R

SFO, OAK, SJC :
I do plane spotting when not flying, using a scanner, binoculars, and go to flysfo.com . At that site, there is a " noise abatement" link that has a full screen of the greater SF Bay Area with tracking of all aircraft , albeit a ten minute delay. Can watch how/where all aircraft come/go.
Noticed several days landing 19 l/r from East, departing 28 l/r to South.
After 9/11 , for awhile, there seemed to be a mixing of runways not related to weather.

moondog

i think ont and lax are supposed to go the same direction whenever possible

FlyinHawaiian

I had the fun experience of east departure from runway 6L the other night. In the 20+ years I've been flying in and out of LAX, I think this was only the second time I've done that.

Normal LAX operations have arrivals and departures using the west orientation of runways 24/25. During late night and early morning hours, arrivals will shift to eastward final approaches (over the ocean) for noise abatement considerations, normally using the north runways (6L/R) while depatures continue as normal using the south side. It's fun if you are inbound and sitting on the right side to see departing planes passing you.

p.s. I did find this five year old thread in TravelBuzz! on this topic: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...today-why.html

azepine00

Seriously messed up weather. After circling in holding pattern for 15 min we approached from water on friday mid day surprising the heck out of me.

Not sure if this continues this weekend.

FlyinHawaiian

I flew into LAX this morning and while it was socked in pretty good, it was the normal 24/25 arrival and departures.

alcathiax

I live just south of the west end of 7R and I have noticed that the only times operations are reversed is when the winds are blowing in from the west (prevailing winds from the east).

Craig6z

Are you sure you do not have that reversed? The winds blow in from the water year-round north of 90% of the time, which is why standard takeoffs and landings are over the water. The only times activity is easterly* is in high Santa Ana wind conditions, and in unstable weather such as the last few days.

I'll add to Greg's experience that in over 40 years of flying out of LAX as my home field, I can think of three take-offs to the east.

*outside of landings after 11:30pm, for noise reduction purposes

N751PR

I've only had it done once, back in January 2007. Looks like I missed out on having a second chance at it just by a few days!

HkCaGu

I'm not sure of the exact number, but if LAX is 90% west (24/25) and 10% east (6/7), then among those east days, 90% is because of wet factors (winter storm/Catalina eddy) and 10% is because of dry factor (Santa Ana). Santa Ana winds rarely get strong enough to go all the way to LAX in significant speeds. First it's got to be east, not NE, then it will have to be very strong (e.g. 40-60 knots at ONT) to make it all the way down. Also, it takes less east winds to turn LAX around when the runways are wet.

nov11

I was driving on Vista Del Mar last night and saw planes landing on the 6/7s. I must say - it was really cool watching planes landing on the 6/7s especially when the plane's lights break the storm clouds (I even parked by the side to watch those planes land).

I have flown in and out of LAX numerous times and I have only landed on the 6/7 twice and taken off from it once (due to weather and not noise abatement).

FlyinHawaiian

I flew IAD-LAX this evening and during my pre-flight chat with the pilots, they mentioned to expect an eastbound landing. Sure enough, we landed on 7R. Channel 9 was on, so I could hear that ONT was also doing east departure and arrivals. I also overheard some folks on the shuttle that there was wind-shear warnings at LAX earlier this evening, so some flights diverted to ONT.

I liked watching the departures on 7L; a SQ 340 rolled by us and was just lifting off abeam of T8.