while flying from WIMM to WIII today, i selected runway 25R for my arrival at WIII. but suddenly the runway direction changed mid-air. what should i do if this happen? can i just change my flight plan to active runway?
1 Like
Yep, change your STAR and APP procedures to the appropriate onnes
1 Like
Yes, you can just change your flight plan to another runway for arrival. It is best to always land on the runway which is showing green, or if there isn’t one then the one showing yellow. You can adjust your flight plan at any time during the flight. Bare in mind some runways aren’t used for arrivals
1 Like
thanks! just changed the runway to 07R
1 Like
what if the direction suddenly change while i already descended? is there any consequence if i keep landing on the runway that showed red?
1 Like
I think they are using that runway because there is no wind but there is crosswind on the Red runways
No, there is no consequence for landing on a red runway. It will show red if the wind is above 5 knots and a tailwind. You should always aim to land with headwind, this includes crosswind but there should always be a headwind factor in that crosswind. If you are on an approach and it changes, you can either continue if you think it is safe to do so or go around and land on the other side.
1 Like
This may also mean you have to change your STAR as well to accommodate the arrival for the other side of the airport, assuming you still have time to do so
1 Like
I usually use the RWY that is currently in use in real life (check flightradar24.com). Some larger airports even publish RWY alternation schedules such as Heathrow for example:
2 Likes
so insightful, thanks! 
1 Like
It is best to always check on FR24 instead of checking alternation schedules. That timetable is only for westerly operations and sometimes Heathrow is on easterly operations, which means they aren’t following that alternation schedule. Just bare in mind that the runways may change while you are flying
Happy to help! 
1 Like
SimBrief usually calculates the runway based on the weather when you arrive, It calculates the weather and winds for your predicted arrival time.
1 Like
The runway direction didn’t change, it just shows you what kind of wind component the runway has.
Green = headwind
Red = tailwind
orange = crosswind
The runway can be red even if the tailwind component is really low.
It’s important to note that these colors (green, red, orange) do not mean there’s a specific active runway.
The only thing that would denote an active runway is the ATIS of an airport controlled by an IFATC on the expert server. That means if you are on Casual Server or Training Server then there is no active runway (so you can technically choose any runway to TO or land if you wish).
Like others mentioned, you should use Flightradar24 or an equivalent provider to see which runway aircraft are using in real life and that will help determine if you can keep your STAR/app or change it.
In real life it’s common to see planes landing with 5kts of tailwind, sometimes even 7kts. 10 kts tailwind is usually the amount where airports will consider flipping the active runway.
Anyways, it’s also good practice to know how to change your STAR/APP on the fly just in case you do encounter the situation where the originally planned runway has a big tailwind 
2 Likes