do airplanes take off and land in the same directions?

Answer 1

usually, but depends on the wind

Answer 2

most of the time it depends on the wind direction and speed but there are some airports wherein take off and landing is only from one direction because of obstruction in the takeoff or landing path. usually airplanes take off land towards the wind but if the wind changes direction too much such that it becomes a tail wind, usually the runway is changed to the opposite direction depending on the amount of tail wind. also if an airport has many runways, some aircraft will take off in slightly different directions depending on the runway lengths and aircraft performance and sometimes for fuel savings or convenience especially when there is no wind.

Answer 3

I don't know why everyone is saying it depends. Let's say you are at Atlanta. They have runways that go east/west. If the wind is blowing from an easterly direction, you will takeoff AND land on the easterly facing runways. If the wind is from a westerly direction you will takeoff and land on the westerly facing runways. This is the case at 99.9% of airport operations. I have only had one instance where we landed going the oposite direction of an airplane that was taking off. The winds were calm and the tower had plenty of spacing to get them out of our way before we landed. It did make it a little strange seeing lights coming at us while we were down low.

So in summary, in normal cases, airplanes will take off and land going in the same direction.

Answer 4

Yes, into the wind, if possible. That's why airports have markings at both ends of the runways. The number tells the direction you are headed when you land or take off. For an east-west runway, you may have 8 at one end and 26 at the other. This stands for headings of 80 and 260 degrees.

Answer 5

As stated. most takeoffs and landing are done into the wind.
There are airports though that require you land in one direction and takeoff in the other. This is because there is some obstruction at one end that you can neither land or takeoff and clear it, for example, a mountain, or on an extremely steep slope. Land uphill, takeoff downhill. An example of an airport where takeoffs and landings are always done in the same direction is here at the airport in Hong Kong:
http://image57.webshots.com/57/5/14/72/2892514720063986906WoHigX_ph.jpg
Note the bank angle. This is done to clear the mountain at the end of the runway. They say this is the most thrilling place to land in a large aircraft.

Answer 6

Ideally, an airplane needs to take-off and land into the wind. It reduces the required speed across the ground for flight (rotation speed - wind factor = ground speed at take-off).
At busier airports, with parallel runways (DFW, LAX), the controllers will alternate the runways, using one to land, the next to take-off, so as to increase the amount of separation between aircraft.
At other airports, with crossing runways (SFO, ANC) runways in one direction will land, while another direction launches. Ideally, it puts the departing planes going away from the approaching.

Answer 7

Take off AND land into the wind. If no wind, whatever runway the tower gives you, or if uncontrolled whatever is being used. If nobody else is flying, you make the choice. But where there's wind, take off and land into the wind. We're talking normal runways here, not some of those uphill-downhill things you run into on occasion.

Answer 8

Depends on the direction the wind is blowing, to some degree. Pilots prefer to land heading into the wind, as it helps slow the plane down and doesn't tend to cause them to overshoot the runway... not usually a problem anyway, but on short runways (I recall a grass runway in McGeehee, OK with a mature tree at the far end) it can make a difference.

On takeoff, they also prefer to head into the wind, as there's greater lift at a slower speed. But again, it's preference more than anything.

Answer 9

Sure. However if the wind changes, probably not. They try to take off and land into the wind.

Answer 10

Yes, thats facing against the direction of the wind is blowing.

Answer 11

not nessesarily
it depends on the wind direction