Can someone help me with this scenario?

FL_CTI Senior Member South Florida

First, it really helps if you have an airport diagram of Fort Lauderdale Executive (FXE). Second, assume FXE is on an east-bound operation. I need help with relaying radio information. Here is the story:

I was working in the tower simulator on campus today. I was telling an aircraft the taxi via Bravo, Charlie, hold short Runway 3-1. The person who was instructing me, told me that we are a predominately east-bound operation, and should use east-bound numbers. He said I should have told the aircraft to hold short of runway 1-3 instead, to maintain consistency. Who would be right?

RFDATM Trusted Member IL

What is the active? Hold short instructions should correspond to the active runway so hopefully the pilot will also be looking the right way for any uncoming traffic.

ATC_MacGyver MacGyver with the bears.

what was the active runway. where were you taxing the aircraft to?

psachs Trusted Member Chicago

Help me understand the scenario a little better. Was Runway 31 in use at the time? What were the winds, and was there other traffic? Which runway was the other traffic using? And Charlie would make it an intersection departure, right? If the whole point was to put all traffic in an eastbound flow, why not taxi the departure via Bravo and Alpha or Bravo and Echo, hold short of Runway 8?

ATC_MacGyver MacGyver with the bears.

if runway 13/31 is not active (ground control owns it), i think you can call it whatever you want. if it were me this is what i would say

N123AB RWY 26 (assuming that is where he's going), taxi via Bravo, Charlie, hold short of runway 13/31.

if the runway is active. then you call it whatever runway it is.

diagram of fxe.

http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0913/05942AD.PDF

FL_CTI Senior Member South Florida

Sorry should have been more specific. The exercise was strictly transition aircraft, moving from one FBO to another. There was no local controller. It is designed to get us to practice our phraseology and the get to know the layout of the airport. The simulator emulates real-life operations, which at FXE means the active is usually 8. The instructor told me that if I were to say 3-1, any pilot on the frequency might think we are on a westbound operation, which didn't make sense to me. It just seems that if they are closer to 3-1, I can tell them to cross that runway and vice versa. I hope this helps a little bit.

Roddy_Piper Resident Knucklehead Vegas baby

a good habit is to issue instructions based on the runway in use. regardless of which end of the runway the aircraft is near.

neither of you are wrong in the literal sense, there is probably just better techniques.

FL_CTI Senior Member South Florida

Thanks Roddy, that is exactly what I was looking for.

psachs Trusted Member Chicago

Anyone have a .65 reference? Especially in this kind of a situation, where you're issuing an instruction to an aircraft crossing a runway that's not active?

Matty13 Senior Member

I doubt you'll find a reference. The only piece that matters is that the taxiing aircraft holds short of an active runway. They can look for traffic all they want, but it's GC's job to do that for him.

Many CTI instructors (and Raytheon, for that matter) were controllers in one aspect of ATC, so you sometimes get a center guy teaching tower stuff, and a TRACON guy teaching enroute stuff that they learned from a prescribed lesson plan.

In any case, do what your instructor says. It makes life easier.