Planes over dublin

SarahC11

was looking at http://www.flightradar24.com/ and noticed the planes were going all sorts of ways around dublin tonight.i live in balbriggan and they seem to be flying more over this way tonight. any suggestions why this is? the weather maybe?

Unregistered.

The weather maybe? It's often the case with unusual flight patterns.

Danbo!

Strong south easterlys mean they probably have runway 16 in use, so the inbound flights from the east route over north Dublin, balbriggan, skerries, Ashbourne, and approach the airport from the north, rather than straight in by Howth as per usual.

SarahC11

thanks for the replies, danbo! they are passing the airport then heading up dublin north turn around and then back to the airport. looks like some of them are going in circles! freaking me out i have a terrible fear of a plane crashing! hate when there doing things out of the ordinary, any info about why planes do stuff in the sky (circling / flying low down, going off course) anything really id like to understand a bit more about what im lookin at!!

scudzilla

SarahC11 wrote: »

thanks for the replies, danbo! they are passing the airport then heading up dublin north turn around and then back to the airport. looks like some of them are going in circles! freaking me out i have a terrible fear of a plane crashing! hate when there doing things out of the ordinary, any info about why planes do stuff in the sky (circling / flying low down, going off course) anything really id like to understand a bit more about what im lookin at!!

they could be circling for many reasons, Busy runway, a few other planes to land before them, not really going off course, did you look at the altitude of these planes? May have been a missed approach, pilot not happy with conditions and just goes around for another crack, happens all the time with these winds

SarahC11

yeah i was thinking the weather was the problem. still doesnt stop me freaking out over it haha a plane was circling over our house a few weeks ago, so low down it was scary thats what sent me on the net to see why these things happen! getting a bit obsessed with it now!!

The altitude was around 7000ft when they started doing circles over the water!

Inbox

Dublin 5 here, A good few went over. One sounded like it was going to crash in to the house.They where taking off I think as they where headed east out to sea.

Was low and the Engines where whistling up and down. Scares the crap out of me when that happens.

tippilot

Airplanes usually land into wind.

Dublin airport has two runways, 10/28(east/west orientation) and 16/34(SouthEast/North West).

Runway 10/28 is the primary runway. It is longer than 16/34 and has better instrument approach aids. It is the preferred runway.

However, it is most comfortable for a pilot to land an aircraft facing into wind as much as possible. Also, aircraft have crosswind limits, which dictate how much of crosswind(wind from the side) an aircraft can land with.

As the winds tonight are relative strong and from the South East, runway 16 is the most suitable runway for landing tonight. It is not necessarily the direction of the wind alone, that dictates the use of runway 16 but also it's strenght. A light wind from the same direction would be easier to handle on runway 10(/28)-the primary runway.

In order to facilitate landings on runway 16, aircraft must route north of the airport initially and make a series of turns as directed by Air Traffic control, to align themselves directly out from the runway at about 10 miles distance.

The reason you dont see this that often is that the current combined wind direction and strenght is relatively rare and aircraft would usually use the primary runway 28 during normal operations. If aircraft were to be aligned 10 miles out from Runway 28, it would be at a point just East of Howth. The point 10 miles out from the runway in use tonight is to the north of the airport.

What you are seeing is completely normal and a mirror image of what happens east of Howth on a day to day basis. The only difference being the relatively lightly used Runway 16 is in use tonight.

tippilot

Take a look at this:
The two runways can be seen in orange. Aircraft are approaching tonight to land towards the runway with "16" marked at one end. Usually they would land towards the larger runway marke "10" and "28" at each end.

http://www.iaa.ie/safe_reg/iaip/Published%20Files/AIP%20Files/AD/Chart%20Files/EIDW/EI_AD_2_EIDW_24-1_en.pdf

Turbo Porter

Inbox wrote: »

Dublin 5 here, A good few went over. One sounded like it was going to crash in to the house.They where taking off I think as they where headed east out to sea.

Was low and the Engines where whistling up and down. Scares the crap out of me when that happens.

There was at least one overshoot last night.The wind direction for the most was ok for runway 16 at 140 to 160 but an Aer Lingus A320 diverted to Prestwick due to wind shear and had to deviate from the normal go around heading this combined with the normal go around thrust was more than likely what you heard.

CaptainSkidmark

i took off at 6pm this evening and it was hairy enough beating up through the coulds, seemed like the engines were losing power every now and then by the noise they were making. The poor girl next to me was having palpitations and grabbing the seat for most of the flight. she asked me to cjeck if my phone was off before take off and landing in case it made the plane crash.

scudzilla

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

i took off at 6pm this evening and it was hairy enough beating up through the coulds, seemed like the engines were losing power every now and then by the noise they were making. The poor girl next to me was having palpitations and grabbing the seat for most of the flight. she asked me to cjeck if my phone was off before take off and landing in case it made the plane crash.

Please tell me you were a passenger and that the 'poor girl' having palpitations wasn't a co-pilot :D

xflyer

The poor girl wouldn't have enjoyed my company. I remember reading a book called 'Aircrash, the clues in the wreckage' on a Ryanair flight once.

Also I'm cruel to my wife when flying on airliners. Sometimes jumping and saying 'What's that?' or turning to her looking grim faced and saying: 'I don't want to worry you but....'

homerjay2005

we used 16/34 landing on sunday night and it was fairly rough coming in alright!

CaptainSkidmark

scudzilla wrote: »

Please tell me you were a passenger and that the 'poor girl' having palpitations wasn't a co-pilot :D

No no i was in 28E lol
Even after we landed she was still taking deep breaths

Tenger

xflyer wrote: »

Also I'm cruel to my wife when flying on airliners. Sometimes jumping and saying 'What's that?' or turning to her looking grim faced and saying: 'I don't want to worry you but....'

I don't even need to do that, my missus asks what every little noise inflight is....
"whats that noise?" "Its the seatbelt sign going on dear"

"why are the crew on the phone?"
"checking if the pilot wants something to eat"
"he should be flying the plane not eating!!!"

In fairness she did have a quite serious scare a few years ago and hasn't liked flying since then.