Author Topic: KJFK winds and runways  (Read 13248 times)

Offline cue

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KJFK winds and runways
« on: November 20, 2011, 12:14:15 PM »
Hello there, this is my first post on this forum.

I began flying the B763 recently and one of my favourite destinations is JFK,
Last week I was incoming from south america and the ATIS had a wind from 260 and runway 31R for landing. (so far so good)
On the following ATIS bradcasts the wind began to  change to 310 and increase, but they changed the landing runways to 4L/R
I ended up landing a complicated xwind approach to RWY 4R with a wind of 31011G32KT

My question here is if there is a good reason why they use RWY4 configuration with such a crosswind instead of keeping RWY31 configuration for a better landing.

I was thinking about conflicting traffic from nearby airports but RWY31R approach is over the water so I would think this would be another reason to prefer RWY31



Offline unclebootleg

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Re: KJFK winds and runways
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2011, 08:30:25 AM »
The answer is simply it depends on the time of day.  Most of the time the forecasted winds (on the ATIS) do not accurately reflect the actual surface winds.  Based on the time of day, JFK will go from two arrival runways; either 13L and 22L (with southwest winds) or 31R and 31L (northeast winds) during the mid to late afternoon to two departure runways either 4L and 31L@KK or 22R and 31L@KK.  The only way to accomplish two departure runways is to have the 22's or 4's active, with 4R or 22L being the primary arrival runway and 31L@KK becomes an overflow departure runway.   Unless the winds actually gust on the surface or the tailwind component for 31L@KK exceeds 10 knots (and pilots won't accept it), JFK will be on two departure runways during evening hours.