I live near Harry Reid Airport (FKA McCarren airport) in Las Vegas, directly west of the airport. My apartment faces west. The vast majority of the time, I can look out my window or walk my dog and see planes lined up to come in for a landing (sometimes 7 or more at once!) and watch them fly eastward overhead on their descent. But sometimes, every now and then, the planes go the opposite direction and I see them going WEST and gaining altitude (so clearly they have taken off). WHY do they seemingly randomly switch the runway direction? Weather and wind does not seem to play any factor as I’ve tried to pay attention to if I only see them going the other way when it’s cloudy or windy and no… It truly seems random. Why do they do this? It baffles me.
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I’m a Vegas plane watcher too and sometimes when the wind is light, traffic will take off to the east. Since this cuts down on taxi time from Terminal 1 to the end of the runway (it can be almost 2 mile long taxi going to the “usual” end.)
Also, flights going East save fuel and time because they don’t have to turn 180° to head East.
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