this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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Mildly Interesting
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Flying into CLT.
I could do without the profanity.
Better than KLIT!
My ex said I could never find that, and I'm not even a pilot!
Are there two distinct terminals? Crossing an active runway seems…. Ill advised
You don't need two terminals. Planes wait at stop lines until they can cross a runway. Some airports have parallel runways that are far enough apart to let two planes safely land at the same time.
I guess it works better when you’re not at a training airport. Where I’m at, the only time we use the second runway is for a different group altogether
parallel runways are not uncommon. with enough spacing between them, simultaneous use is possible. i think ord (chicago o'hare) can do up to 4 landings at the same time.
Looks like two to me based on the layout. In an emergency, MDW isn't far off, DuPage has the second longest runway in Illinois at 7571x150 ft (after ORD), and Aurora has a 6501x100 ft runway. I know Hastert used to fly in and out of Aurora in what I believe was a 707.
ord has eight runways now.
https://aeronav.faa.gov/d-tpp/2407/00166ad.pdf
I guess my airport doesn’t get enough traffic
This is probably also one of the reasons they land both planes at once; it probably simplifies ground operations if everyone’s using taxiways at the same time rather than having to stop ground traffic to wait down range for a landing…
They have air traffic control. They only let the planes cross runways with clearance when the runway is clear. Parallel runways are very common and it isn't a problem. Aircraft movements are well coordinated.
CLT, Charlotte-Douglas International in North Carolina, is a Class B airfield, in layman's terms it has the most severe air traffic control it can get. It's a whole other level above Raleigh-Durham or Piedmont-Triad. Huh, I've been flying in North Carolina since 2001 and I just now realized that all of our airports are hyphenated.
Charlotte-Douglas has four runways, three of them parallel. The airline terminal, cargo terminal and a few other major facilities sit between runways 36C and 36R, on either side of runway 5. A few other facilities including the general aviation ramp and the Air National Guard ramp sit on the East side of the field off of 36R. 36L is kind of way off to the West. I don't know at a glance of the airport diagram if they can do simultaneous approaches to all three runways but I have to imagine they can do simultaneous approaches to the outer two.
Wait what? Is KCLT the only bravo in NC????
Yep. RDU, GSO, FAY, whatever Asheville is are all Charlie, and Wilmington is a class D with a TRSA around it because the coast hasn't joined us in the 21st century.
I have heard too many ATC recordings of where the landing plane has to go around because the crossing plane is too slow.
And you say well coordinated, but people still land on the wrong runway, and people still land on taxiways…
But I digress, I think my airports just don’t have enough traffic to support parallel landings
Parallel landings has special requirements. Most airports cannot do parallel landings and instead use one runway for landings and one for takeoffs.
Aviation has a very low reporting threshold. Every minor breach of procedure or a near miss generates a report. The FAA estimates 16 million flights per year, with a total of 1760 runway incursions in 2023. A tenth of a percent incident rate is not bad.
Imagine how the statistics would look if we held automobiles to the same reporting standards.
Happens a lot at Charlotte-Douglas; the field has three parallel runways.
I remember seeing this happening while taking off from Charlotte. ATC probably does this on purpose to make estimating turns easier/more predictable rather than trying to time staggered takeoffs and approaches amongst each other. That place must have a fuckton of holding and departing traffic at all hours…