in most airports i've been to the plane taxi's to the gate under its own fuel, but at la iarport all planes get towed, why?
2006-09-04 01:22:23 · 6 answers · asked by gavin 2 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Aircraft
On very busy airport, pilots have little time to perform the preflight checks. If the pilots can concentrate on those instead of having to taxi around, that is a plus for safety, and it speeds up the process. In a crowded environment, the pilot does not see much past the wing, while a tow mule driver can see all around; this reduces the risk of incident with an airplane clippnig the wing off another.
Also, a mule use much less fuel than an airplane, and speed is more easily controlled.
These are the few of the possible reasons. But of course, you need to have the traffic to justify having all those mules around.
2006-09-04 01:34:39 · answer #1 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Sorry but all previous answers are incorrect. At some gates at LAX (Tom Bradley International terminal particularly)the aircraft are towed into the parking position in the cul-de-sacs because the jet efflux would be a danger to the people and vehicles on the other side. It can also be because the parking gate position is too tight for large aircraft to taxy under their own power.
2006-09-04 15:20:47 · answer #2 · answered by bird_757 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At large airports it is to save fuel. because the distance from the runway to the gate can be as much as 2 miles and if a large plane were to taxi that distance it could burn as much as 420 gallons of jet fuel and with jet fuel being around $5 a gallon thats a saving of $2,100 for just that one plane multiply that by the hundreds of planes in a typical airliner fleet and youve got hundreds of thousands of dollars being saved every day.
2006-09-04 09:16:56 · answer #3 · answered by rsist34 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I just traveled thru LAX last week, and didn't see any airplanes being towed on taxiways. They were all moving under their own power as usual.
Large passenger aircraft are pushed back from boarding gates because they can't back up under their own power, but once the tug has positioned them on a taxiway where they can move out under their own power, they do so.
2006-09-04 12:07:45 · answer #4 · answered by JetDoc 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
to save fuel, to park perfectly they rely on towing than pilots capability,
2006-09-04 08:30:32 · answer #5 · answered by surikanduri 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
LA is so big and busy its a safety issue more than anything.
2006-09-04 09:37:44 · answer #6 · answered by Latin Techie 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋