JFK has been up and down the 13's all morning with extensive use of 13L for departures... Speedbird 744 to LHR was the last one.,.. FedEx's two MD10's made impressive empty departures as well as about a dozen other flights in the last hour or so.
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JFK has been up and down the 13's all morning with extensive use of 13L for departures... Speedbird 744 to LHR was the last one.,.. FedEx's two MD10's made impressive empty departures as well as about a dozen other flights in the last hour or so.
Really? OH MAN!! That would be sweet to see... IF I WAS THERE!! lol. But I am stuck at work unfortunately :-)
Cathay just took off from 13 Left. Now that was IMPRESSIVE
OK now you're making me VERY JEALOUS. I am stuck in meetings ALL DAY... this sucks. ANA is landing now... and the light is good too. And it is cold and windy which should reduce heat shimmer.
13L departures may occur at times when arrival demand is low such as the morning. It was convenient for the Brit B744 and the two FedEx DC-10s to depart from that runway since its right next to their parking areas. Brings back memories when 13L departures were common in the 1990s.
They do it often enough, but RARELY without it split between 22L/R for European and 13L for domestics. The last time I witnessed 13L/R exclusive use was during the extreme storm last Wednesday.
Its quite simple. There was less air traffic in the United States during the 1990s then there is presently.
It was also convienent for ATC to segregate the departures by departure fix off the 13's, enabliing them to "fan" them. 13L would use runuway heading and 110 headings. 13R would use 185/155 and runway headings. It was made easier because there was a distinct arrival surge in the early afternoon and a distinct departure surge from about 5pm till 9 or so.
There was once a time, also during the late 80's and 90's JFK had a gate hold procedure. This would be a perfect solution to the hours of outbound taxi delays experienced before the "tarmac rule" was imposed by the DOT; There was a bit less traffic then and therefore more gate space which made it possible. JFK does, however have a lot of wasted space.