Know what runway in use at EHAM (Amsterdam) when no ATC

[Sander Cedee]

Hi all,

 

I noticed that a few pilots choose runways to land on, that are the best choice concerning wind and less taxi-time, but in real life are closed at that time; (So it might end up with e.g. angry citizens complaining about environmental / noise...the surrounding inhabitants will not let a chance p[Mod - Happy Thoughts] by to complain of course Well anyways: There is a handy website to check, with an image in which you can see what runway(s) are actually in use for Departure and Arrivals when there is no ATC coverage on VATSIM:

 

https://en.lvnl.nl/environment/runway-use

 

Just a suggestion for pilots who want to be close to reality,

Happy flyin'

[nebojsa milosavljevic]

Thank's for the info. I always try to use real info where available.It may not work if ATC is on and they give you a another runway in use.

 

nebojsa

[Tobias Dammers]

Dutchvacc post this information on their own website, too: https://www.dutchvacc.nl/active-runways/

 

I'm surprised that this isn't common knowledge among those who fly into or out of EHAM.

[Torben Andersen]

"I'm surprised that this isn't common knowledge among those who fly into or out of EHAM"

 

Honestly, if no controllers are available at an airport, it is up to you as the PiC to choose the most favourble rwy - noone else.

Landing on 18R is nice, if you like long taxiing around, but 18C is often a better choice. So look and listen to traffic in the area, and adjust. But puritanism has killed a lot of the joy.

[Trent Hopkinson]

"I'm surprised that this isn't common knowledge among those who fly into or out of EHAM"

 

Honestly, if no controllers are available at an airport, it is up to you as the PiC to choose the most favourble rwy - noone else.

Landing on 18R is nice, if you like long taxiing around, but 18C is often a better choice. So look and listen to traffic in the area, and adjust. But puritanism has killed a lot of the joy.

 

Landing on 36L is ... silly.

(And there's no taxiway up there, so you'd need to backtrack!

[Alex Amorianos]

https://www.flightradar24.com

Your best friend for all airports.

[Torben Andersen]

"I'm surprised that this isn't common knowledge among those who fly into or out of EHAM"

 

Honestly, if no controllers are available at an airport, it is up to you as the PiC to choose the most favourble rwy - noone else.

Landing on 18R is nice, if you like long taxiing around, but 18C is often a better choice. So look and listen to traffic in the area, and adjust. But puritanism has killed a lot of the joy.

 

Landing on 36L is ... silly.

(And there's no taxiway up there, so you'd need to backtrack!

 

Did I mention rwy 36L? Where did that come from? Common sense is allways a good choice.

 

regards Torben

[Andreas Fuchs]

18R-36L

 

Was in EHAM for real on the weekend and with those strong winds (250/32G45) all aircraft (up to B777) had to land on runway 22, that was fun to watch from the General Aviation Jet Center. Only some 747s landed on RWY24, due to their size.

[Tobias Dammers]

IRL, landings on 36L are only allowed in an emergency, mainly due to noise abatement regulations. PiC decision or not, you can't normally land on 36L.

[Andreas Fuchs]

We know that, but for some people the existence of runway 18R also results in runway 36L being available. It would not make any sense to land there and everytime I have to land on 18R for real makes me curse because of the endless taxi time. 36L would be even worse. Similar deal in Frankfurt, although runway 18 does exist, runway 36 does not exist! And 18 is for departures only.

[Tobias Dammers]

True, but EDDF's 18 doesn't suck anywhere near as much as 18R/36L at EHAM. For giggles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB-qFq0FW9s. Half the video (15 minutes) is just taxiing to 36L, followed by a 13-minute flight.

[Frank Grivel]

True, but EDDF's 18 doesn't suck anywhere near as much as 18R/36L at EHAM. For giggles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB-qFq0FW9s. Half the video (15 minutes) is just taxiing to 36L, followed by a 13-minute flight.

 

I thought EHAM's 18R (arriving) 36L (departing) was bad until I flew into Paris De Gaulle recently. That's a taxi as well...

 

Anyway, the controllers at DutchVACC will occasionally deviate from the real-world combinations for various reasons. Today I had 27 arriving 24 departing while real world was 18R arriving. If there's a controller online you can always check the ATIS or send a private message. I'd personally rather have pilots message me and ask if they're unsure than having to deal with some weird maneuvers at the very last moment.

 

As for it being the PIC's responsibility to choose a runway if nobody is online: yes, that's true, but sticking at least to the proper directions (i.e. landing and departing in the appropriate direction) helps everyone. Landing 18C when 18R is officially active is understandable. Landing 36C when the rest is landing 06 is a pain.

[Kim de Winter]

As much as it might be obvious to some: if there is a controller online there, their choice of runway may not be the same as what the DutchVACC's website, LVNL, or flightradar tells you. There can be many reasons for this(like differing traffic levels on VATSIM vs IRL, VATSIM pilot's tolerance for crosswind, etc). In this case the VATSIM controller's choice is leading. Stating this mainly because I've come across the oc[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ional pilot that protests "b-but, flightradar said..."

 

But if no controller's offline, you can use those sources as a rough guide. Imo you shouldn't use it to tell other pilots what to do though.

 

And yeah the taxi from the Polderbaan sucks. 36L for departures and 18R for arrivals are used whenever possible for noise abatement, which we have to simulate. You can always send a .msg to request another runway if you're really pressed for time; as long as it's not too busy, or an event.

[Tobias Dammers]

Anyway, the controllers at DutchVACC will occasionally deviate from the real-world combinations for various reasons. Today I had 27 arriving 24 departing while real world was 18R arriving. If there's a controller online you can always check the ATIS or send a private message. I'd personally rather have pilots message me and ask if they're unsure than having to deal with some weird maneuvers at the very last moment.

 

Of course. But the original question was specifically about what to do when there's no ATC. When there's a VATSIM ATIS, you would of course get your information from there; also, when there's an APP or CTR controller online, they will get all arrivals on the right approaches anyway (and amend flight plans as needed).