post 9

Pat also taught me about runway names and how the names are chosen. Each runway is given a number from 1-36. The number is determined by the heading that the plane would fly in order to land on that runway. East is a heading of 090, south is a heading of 180, west is a heading of 270, and north is a heading of 360. For example, at the Academy Airport (the made up airport designed to teach students air traffic control), the runways are labeled 28 and 10. This is because runways are on such an angle compared to north that they would fly a heading of 280 in order to land on runway 28 and would fly a heading of 100 in order to land on runway 10 (drop the last zero off the end of the heading to the name of the runway). The name of the runway changes depending on which direction the plane will be moving on that runway. At the Academy Airport, planes landing traveling east would land on runway 10, while planes landing going west would land on runway 28 (even though it is the same runway, it is called either runway 10 or runway 28 depending on which way the planes are going). It is not the other way around because the planes that are landing on the east side of the runway are travelling west at a heading of 280, so the east side is labeled 28 rather than 10. So, if you have a runway, you either add or subtract 180 from it in order to get the name of the runway for going the opposite direction. If there are multiple runways at the same angle, they are labeled “R”, “L”, or “C” for right, left, or center runways. For example, the Academy Airport has two 28 runways (and therefore two 10 runways), so these runways are labeled 28R and 28L for 28 Right and 28 Left.