I wish there was a way for controllers to see the weight of an aircraft, especially a heavy, and assign the appropriate runway for departure.
I say this because I have been flying the Dreamliner today in Australia. Normally, I take off at about 70% weight. At YSSY I’ve been assigned runway 25, which is kind of short, compared to 34L-16R.
At a heavier weight, need a longer run.
Not a big deal, I know, but just a wish list sort of thing.
Would be nice. I got told to land 34R at YSSY, too short to handle the 789.
The shorter runways are okay for landing, approach/landing speed should be slow enough that there shouldn’t be an issue. But take offs require a longer roll, particularly with heavies at a high weight.
Request the runway you want simple the PIC can make that call.
This has the sound of a feature request…
I’ll try that Brandon, will let you know how that goes.
If it’s already assigned on landing, ask for a runway change.
Not talking about landing. Talking about departure.
What I’m saying is…normally…the shorter runways are assigned for landings. The longer ones for departures.
The Dreamliner is pretty fine taking off on YSSY’s Runway 25 :)
34R is 8,000 feet long… that’s more than enough to accommodate landing a 789. Planes way bigger have landed on there before.
Point aside, yes, you can make that judgement call, but not everything is black and white. Lots of variations to account for.
Depending on weight Aussie. I take off heavy, and 25 is short.
I take off with ‘normal’ load. So RWY 25 for me is perfect 👍👌
Firstly, vote for this:
Secondly, another suggestion I have spruiked many times (and it’s only likely to happen on expert, but not always) is that controllers need to be aware of the airport they are controlling, the runway specifications, and the local procedures for such. Too many times I see exactly what you are saying - (as an example at YSSY) - A380s etc being instructed to taxi to runway 25 for takeoff as there is a westerly wind blowing. That NEVER happens at YSSY, an A380 always uses 34L / 16R
This is why I like to fly at uncontrolled airports, so I can follow real world procedures, also why I fly TS1 cos I can’t be ghosted and having to follow ludicrously incorrect procedures and flight paths.
The only solution in IF is to request your desired runway, and hope there is enough common sense from the controller to understand you are not just trying to be an annoying troll, and realise why you are making such request. Unfortunately there’s too many trolls and too many unskilled controllers to ever allow this to work properly. Your idea of wanting to advise of your weight etc won’t help, no one is really gonna know the minimum takeoff length required off the top of their head for a certain aircraft at a certain weight and give you a runway change to account for it
MJames, I agree with most of what you say. The misuse of call sign add-ons is prevalent. And, the ATC’s here just want to get you the hell off of their freqs, especially at super busy fields, and that’s understandable.
So, maybe advising of my weight isn’t helpful…but…maybe it should be a given that longer runways should always be used for departures, and shorter runways for arrivals? Or is that too much to ask?
Request taxi to 34L.
An expert server controller would (I hope) recognize that as a request for more TO length and grant the request.
I can almost guarantee that I’ll get the dreaded “please follow instructions.”
The aircraft isn’t based on its weight, but it’s MTOW. The runway length you can see already.
Let’s say that I’m flying a 748. I’ve set my weight at 742,000 lbs (which is less than MTOW) because, being a 747 I’ll be flying a long distance, requiring a large fuel load. At YSSY, runway 07-25 is 8315 ft. Upon pushback I am told to expect runway 25. I pushback and request taxi to 34L. Hopefully, the ATC takes a look and determines that my request is reasonable, though he/she has no idea what my weight is. Like I said, I’ll test the theory, and report back.
I don’t think you understand. It doesn’t matter what your weight is. It’s your AIRCRAFT that decides it. The MTOW is static, it doesn’t change.
Even though you do a shuttle flight with no pax, you cannot expect a shorter runway. If you request it, sure – but your weight won’t matter at all