how do planes know which runway to land on at an airport?

Answer 1

Frank C,
When the pilot gets within a few miles of the airport, he's required to call approuch control in the tower. They guide him into the airport and then the tower informs him what runway he will land on and they are well marked. He's guided into his landing pattern by the tower, and then he's directed into his final leg, voila he's on the ground. So I guess you have the answer by now it's the TOWER. The tower is the controling interst at every airport, you as a pilot are required to obey there every command.
TDCWH

Answer 2

Well, let's see... First, about the answers above:

1. There are no "little men" in boxes telling us what to do.

2. Planes are not voice controlled, yet.

3. Approach control isn't in the tower. They're in a radar facility that might or might not be located on the airport.

4. "smartestgirl_alive" definitely isn't, despite all the attitude. Her explanation sounds like she's regurgitating something she heard at a cocktail party, and didn't understand very well.

Here's what happens:

Prior to departure, the pilots receive a document called a dispatch release. The release contains the information they need to conduct the flight, including the assigned aircraft and crew, the route of flight, fuel load, alternate airports (if required), and current and forecast weather at the departure, destination and alternate airports.

The pilots will take a look at the forecast wind direction and speed at the time of arrival, compare it against a diagram of the destination airport, and make an educated guess about which runway to expect. They'll usually program this into the plane's navigation computer, called a Flight Management System (FMS), as a placeholder, until they know for sure which runway will be used. If they're very familiar with a particular airport's arrival pattern, they may simply program what they know will happen.

Once the flight is within a half-hour or so of the destination, one of the pilots will listen to a recorded radio broadcast from the airport that gives current weather conditions, the runway(s) in use, any instrument approaches in use, and any other pertinent information about the airport (equipment failures, runway or taxiway closures, etc.).

Using this information, the pilots will make any necessary changes to the programming of the FMS, get out the proper chart for an instrument approach (if the weather requires one), and the flying pilot will give the non-flying pilot a verbal briefing on how s/he will conduct the approach and landing.

Once the flight is handed off from the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC, enroute controllers) to the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), they'll begin to get instructions leading them toward the proper runway. Airliners approaching large air carrier airports are usually following a published approach procedure. Once an approach controller starts to issue turns and descents off of the published procedure, they will always re-confirm where they're taking the flight. It might sound something like this: "United twenty-five, turn left heading one seven zero, vectors for visual approach runway two three."

The TRACON will usually guide the aircraft until it's on a heading to intercept the final approach course for the runway, then they'll issue an approach clearance. Shortly thereafter, the TRACON will hand the flight off to the Control Tower, who issues a clearance to land.

Answer 3

you all are full of crap.

PILOTs learn in ground school how to read navagational charts and FlIPS. Visit www.FAA.gov....Each airport is required to publish hours of operations, names of runways, taxiways, lighting system, ...anything and everything related to the safety of flight or passengers. These pubs are updated weekly, literally. Most cases, the TOWER only CONFIRMS which runway a Heavy will land on. The busiest of airports are in a CLASS Bravo- FAA stuff -which means the aircraft must have permission to enter their airspace. The Radar Approch Control or TRACON (this is not the tower) begins to communicate with the pilot at a certain point, specified to their airspace or will be transferred from a CENTER. The TRACON will advise pilot of runway conditions, important adivories..like weather, birds, other traffic...etc. The pilot will already know in advance or have a good idea which runway to use depending on the PUBS, how heavy the aircraft is, which flying instruments in his cockpit- some only work with runways equipped for those instruments. The pilot, many times, will see the 'flow of traffic' in the busy city airports.

The Tower you passengers see handle the aircraft after the TRACON has transferred the pilot to their frequency. The tower confirms the runway and gives the pilot airport advisories and persmission to land.

Pilots never just "guess" which runway to land on. From the moment you board that aircraft to the moment you unload literally hundreds of people have got your place safely from Point A to Point B.

Answer 4

Well, air trafic control dispetcher tells the pilot where to land. However, navigation system in plane is allows pilots to make a choice at wich runway to land. The pilot is looking to the grade (1to360) of the runway, which is also writen in navigation system, turns plane to that grade and decending exactly on the runway.
In the night time most runways have a special lights, that pilot can see it beeing 5 miles above.

Answer 5

An Air Traffic Controller keeps track of a certain amount of planes in a certain limit of space. They decide which lane to use by how large the aircraft is, the weather, and how many planes are coming in. It is then radioed to the Pilot of the plane and the pilot uses that runway to safely land on.

Answer 6

Frank, in addition to the air traffic controllers telling the pilot where to land, the pilots usually have a map of every major airport in that big box they all carry around.

So the tower might say land on 18R, and the pilot will then look for 18R on the map and find the markers to land on that runway.

Is that what you were asking?

Answer 7

the pilot gets a message from the man at the airport telling him which runway to land on, and the pilot leans forward and whispers the message to the plane....' see that long straight white line, well you have to get down to there , ok ? and then the plane puts his wheels down

Answer 8

most airports only have two runways to land on,some just one, air traffic control tells them witch one

Answer 9

LOL

Airplanes do not know anything. Traffic contro tower tells the pilots where to land

Answer 10

theres a little man that sits in the planes little box called a radio that tells the pilot where to land....