WestWind Airlines

What do the ZFW controllers use as the criteria for landing/departing to the north?  Based on my experience south ops is the general rule, even with a light tailwind.  However, when DFW is uncontrolled, though, a lot of pilots seem to be slaves to that old windsock.  "Winds 320 at 8 knots? OMG, better use 36R for takeoff!!!"

---

Mark Kuebeler, KSLC

The calm wind runways are the 17/18s.  These are used when winds are less than 5kts.

Now, our general rule of thumb is not to change the airport to north ops until the METAR updates a second time so we are not flipping back and forth, unless of course the change is so extreme that we have to.  So like last night it was backwards for a little while because the winds were shifty due to the storm.  Also we have to take into consideration how DAL is affected, b/c we don't want them running opposite, and yes there are times when the winds are reversed between the two.

95% of the time it is an easy call, but, especially during storm season, that other 5% is a real pain.

 
We like south ops because the majority of the flights arrive from north of the airport.

 

---

Andrew Podner, WWA1662
Command Captain
VP - Hub Operations - N. America, West
ZME ATM, I1 Controller/Instructor
Monster Driver - EHAM/NZAA

Do you actually compute the headwind component for the runway heading, or just 5kts from any direction?

Last Friday I think the DFW winds were out of the north, but I rolled the dice and set up my flight plan for a south departure.  Sure enough, Center came on before I was ready to leave and started doing south ops.  I got a chuckle out of the one AvA pilot that kept asking if he could taxi to 35L after he was told to taxi to 17R. 

Now, yesterday I was coming in from the northwest and ZFW was ATC-free.  Winds were the aforementioned 320 at 8, which I calculated to be a 6kt tailwind for landing on 18R, which seemed reasonable to me.  An American flight was coming in from the south and reporting inbound to land on 36L.  I PM'd him that I intended to land on 18R but he looked like he'd be well clear by the time I got there.  Got no response, but I didn't really need one either, did I?  Then another guy logged on and called taxi for 35L, so at that point I just went with the flow and flew the pattern around to land on 36L.

---

Mark Kuebeler, KSLC

just 5 kts.  What pilots do when no ATC is online is beyond our control.  Most pilots on UNICOM will go with the wind direction regardless of velocity in my experience.

---

Andrew Podner, WWA1662
Command Captain
VP - Hub Operations - N. America, West
ZME ATM, I1 Controller/Instructor
Monster Driver - EHAM/NZAA

One thing to keep in mind guys.  Every jet that I have flown (727, 737, DC-9 and the CL30) has a limiting tailwind component of 10 knots for takeoff and landing (this is for performance reasons....).

---

EHAM-YSSY B772LR