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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When possible, planes try to take off and land into the wind. This is because it allows the plane to maintain more lift at a slower speed, and the headwind helps the plane slow down once it’s on the runway. So when the winds shift directions, deepening on the layout of the runways, airports will often change which runway direction planes use for landing and takeoff so they can still land and takeoff with a headwind. The wind might not be apparent to you but it could still be enough to benefit the planes.
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