Learning to fly a plane (6 - Reading the Runways)

in #travel8 years ago (edited)

Hello All,

Here's another lesson of the basics of flying a plane! Today, I will cover the pilot's alphabet and reading a runway!

Know your alphabet and numbers!

Yes! When you are announcing letters and numbers to the ground or tower you have to be very clear, so we basically use words to not confuse certain letter sounds.

Letters-Numbers
AlphaNovember1-One
BravoOscar2-Two
CharliePapa3-Tree
DeltaQuebec4-Four
EchoRomeo5-Fife
FoxtrotSierra6-Six
GolfTengo7-Seven
HotelUniform8-Eight
IndiaVictor9-Niner
JulietWiskey-
KiloX-Ray-Other
LimaYankee0-Zero
MikeZulu1000-Tousand

Pronunciation is very important. You don't want to waste their time, they have a hard enough job directing traffic.

Runways

First of all, every road on a runway has it's own alpha-numeric designation. For example, the conversation with the ATC (ground, since you are one the ground) may go like this:
You: "Hankfield ground, Cessna One-Fife-Niner, on the East ramp, ready for take-off, with Sierra" (Who they are, who you are, your location, what you want to do, ATIS is a automatic weather service that tells you into and the code for the updated time (happened to be Sierra) you need to let them know you know this.
Them: They will give you directions for where to go, maybe will say "Cessna One-Fife-Niner to taxiway Alpha-Four to runway Two-Seven upwind." Saying take taxiway A4 to runway 27, which is also the direction of the runway. Here is a chart for pilot directions:

download.jpg

You also need to know this for when you are landing.

Lighting

Lighting on runways is also important to know. Most lighting is just the outline of the runway, but here are some things you need to know:

  • Taxiway edge lights are blue.
  • Hold short lights are yellow on a taxiway and white strobes on runways. Stop Here.
  • Runway end lights are flashing white strobes.
  • Runway center lights are white, every 50 ft.
  • Landing Lights:
    approach_lights_1.jpg
    The lights I circled in yellow are really helpful! White on white (long flight) means you are too high, red on red (you are dead) means you are too low, white on red, or vice versa, means you are good!

Hope you've enjoyed my friends. I try to give the best summarizations to make it easier for you to learn. Everyone needs at least their private pilot's license!

Happy Trails

Resteem and Follow, let's make STEEMIT a place for pilots!

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Dude Streemian didn't automatically upvote this post for me... Am I too big to use Streemian? I know you said Curie only helps you until you're a level 50 but do you know if I can't use Streemian anymore?

Streemian should work for you to upvote as long as you are a part of their guild.

Was just today trying to remember what "N" call sign was and I could not remember. Thanks for helping me out, seems like old age is creeping in!

Lol. I made another one, posting it tonight, about maneuvers. I need to add youtube examples. Had a road trip, typed everything up in word.

Great will have a look

Nevermind... I can't post the next tonight. Have to wait til tomorrow. Sorry!

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