runway numbers

Have just found a note I took from RAF Harrowbeer OTU:

"5 March 1944 New system of numbering runways by the first two figures of the QDM was brought into force."

I presume this must have been a nationwide edict. Prior to this, the RAF had numbered the runways with One being the first higher than due north and then round the compass clockwise.

New system of numbering runways by the first two figures of the QDM was brought into force."

Just a quick thought... maybe this became necessary as a result of the advances in coupled autopilots and "blind" landing procedures where the relationship between aircraft heading and runway QDM would would be a key component in spatial orientation and awareness.... (basically you'd want the compass/direction indicator to bear some meaningful relationship to the landing runway to assess drift etc)

A very good point and one wonders why it wasn't done much earlier when beam approaches were introduced. I suspect that it was an American practice and that the RAF eventually followed suit.

Same headings because of prevailing winds. When airfields were laid out , the planners attempted wherever possible to have the main runway heading into the prevailing wind .

Hence , in the south and southwest (UK) you will find the majority of the main runways are 26/08 or 27/09.

Left or Right hand circuits, have always been a bone of contention.

Normally for Fixed wing aircraft, they are left hand circuits, as the pilot (if more than one) can always keep the runway in sight.

At Binbrook and Brize, we had Right hand circuits, to avoid flying overhead the local village/town.

I recall some stations that I was on varied the circuits periodically to prevent the fixed circuit becoming a habit.

Peter, Ive never heard of that practice. At Leuchars because of the stupid location off the tower all circuits on 27-09 went behind the tower, not a very good thing from the flight safety side of things. At Marham again because of a poor tower location the circuits went behind the tower.

As for numbers I believe it was the Americans who started the practice.

And as for left and right hand circuits I know of at least six aircraft that have tried to land on parallell taxiways because a controller has said clear land 27 right and not 27 right hand circuit.

lowlowflier wrote:

Magnetic Variation in the UK is decreasing by a very small amount easterly every year.
The main runway at Glasgow Airport was 06/24 when it opened in the 1960s and is now 05/23.

Information about Magnetic Variation is printed on Ordnance Survey maps.

Variation is calculated in 'epochs', an epoch being 4 years hence you will get several airfields changing every 4th year.
I found this out when we were re-laying the runway at Farnborough; I'd calculated we would need to change from 07/25 to 06/24 sometime in late 2002, but on consultation with the CAA I found the 'official' date would be March 2002.
It being December 2001 and with the runway being re-surfaced, I asked for and got permission to change the designation early to save having to re-paint it within 3 months.

Dave wrote:

And then there's Amsterdam Airport where, apart from the number designation, each of the six runways has a name, eg Polderbaan, Zwanenburgbaan, Oostbaan. Baan means road. They are not used for pilots, the idea being to make it easier for ground vehicles requesting runway crossings etc. Another oddity is Paris CDG where left and right is not used for the two parallel runways, they have different designators, namely 09/27 and 10/28 to save possible confusion. In Northern Canada, runway designations are given in degrees true rather than magnetic because the proximity of the Pole means gross differences in magnetic variation.

LAX has four parallel runways but to avoid confusion they call the northerley pair 06/24 L/R and the southerly pair 07/25 L/R; they're actually all the same QDM.