Runways

     I'm going to talk a little on Airports, and their functions.

     First thing that you should know; what is a runway? A runway is the long cement strip at your airport, it sort of looks like a road. A runways purpose is to help airplanes land and takeoff safely, and efficiently.

     It has several white lines in the center, that make up what’s called the centerline, hard to remember right. Unlike a road, the centerline does not divide the runway into two different lanes, its main purpose is to keep you on the runway, without drifting to far one direction. Think about the lines as one continual track, and you are the train, your goal is to stay on the track, so you don't derail.

      Runways have names just like airplanes, ships, cars, and you, only their names are always in numbers, sometimes followed by a letter. This number is the magnetic heading of the runway. For example, we know there are 1-360 degrees on a compass, and if we were to be on runway 10, then we just need to add a zero to the end of 10, and we would have 100 degrees. Now we know that if we are lined up on the centerline, on runway 10, then we must be facing 100 degrees. Other examples, runway 15 would be a heading of 150 degrees, and runway 01L would be runway 10 left.

     Sometimes there's a letter after the number, as you saw in the previous example. What if there are two runways, that are both named 05, which we know is 50 degrees, and the ATC(Air Traffic Controller) instructs you to land on runway 05, which one should you land on if there are two of them. The runways should either have a L, or a R. The L stands for the word left, and the R stands for Right. Don't worry, the controller will tell you which one you should land on. Sometimes you might notice a C after the number. When there's three runways at an airport that have the same heading, the C will mean that it's the center runway and not the right or the left runway.

     There are more runway markings that you should know about, such as the Threshold, Touch Down Zone, and the Fixed Distance Marks. Some of these markings can help tell you were you should land on the runway, so that you will have enough room to slow down, will talk about these markings in other articles later on.

     Runways in a way, are like ramps to the highway. If you drive a car then you probably know that if you want to get to a certain destination, you need to first, pull out of the driveway, and then drive on several streets. The reason I bring this up is that a ramp is like a runway, by the fact that it helps you accelerate really fast in a short amount of time, to help you join the rest of the traffic, and ultimately get you to your destination quicker.

     I hope this made sense. I plan on talking about gates and taxiways, and other airport features later on.