ground stop?

triple7

triple7

Well-Known Member
I get airtraffic delay notices in my email...today there was a ground stop at IAD for runway construction...15-29 mins and increasing. what exactly is a ground stop? is it just a delay? it said :

Departure Delays: At [ IAD ] due to [ RUNWAY CONSTR ] between 15 minutes and 29
minutes and increasing.


anyone help me out. I know 12/30 are being rebuilt, but what do they mean by ground stop?
 
Could be that they were either delaying departures, or more likely they were delaying departing flights at OTHER airports that were headed to IAD.

Ethan
 
triple7
Large Airports use groundstops to stop the inflow of traffic when conditions warrant. The ground stops affect airplanes that are destined to the troubled airport.

Example: A few weeks ago I was filed for IAD ( Dulles ) and because of very strong winds they were landing everyone and departing everyone off one runway ( down from three ). Their ability to move aiplanes became very limited so they put out a ground stop to all inbound flights. I had a 2 hr. ground stop. They "sequened" inbound traffic by limiting the flow of inbounds by holding them at their origination point.
 
The theory is it's cheaper and safer to hold airplanes on the ground, rather than in the air.
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I think of it like having a lumber mill and a narrow river.

Now you need 15 feet between logs (airplanes) heading to the lumber mill (airport) down the river so you don't overload the saw operators (ATC).

When there are too many logs to keep them 15 or more feet apart, the lumberjacks stop sawing (ground stop) and dropping them into the river (airways).

Now that doesn't make any damned sense!
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Sorry!
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Doug, it's difficult for even those of us who grew up in 'Lumber' country to use a good lumberjack metaphor, let alone someone who grew up in Fresno. You are forgiven.
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I guess I'd better stick to raisins, linguica, bovine methane and Tule fog!
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Oh, and tractor pulls. I loved those tractor pulls at the Tulare County Fair.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I loved those tractor pulls at the Tulare County Fair.

[/ QUOTE ]


Gotta love a good tractor pull. They don't have to many of those in the Bay Area.
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Not even Hollister or Tracy? I'm sure those areas have been overrun with suburbia since I left California back in 1996.
 
Tracy is the uber bedroom community. About 90% of the folks I worked with in Walnut Creek drove from Tracy every day. Twice a day through the Altamont would kill me. I prefer the Altamont when infbound for LVK, but never will I like it at ground level.
 
Back in the old days, you wouldn't hit any traffic until the 580/680 near Pleasanton!

We'd shoot the VOR approach into TCY and wouldn't see civilization again until almost abeam the Lawrence Labs on final into LVK!

Which reminds me, I've got billions of pages of RHV-SCK-TCY-LVK-RHV in my logbook from instrument students. Pretty fun circuit!
 
[ QUOTE ]

Which reminds me, I've got billions of pages of RHV-SCK-TCY-LVK-RHV in my logbook from instrument students. Pretty fun circuit!

[/ QUOTE ]


Yeah, it's a popular route. I always hear the IFR pilots calling out at Riega (SP?). I am going to miss LVK.
 
We get ground stops all the time out of MCO for flights headed to FLL and BWI. They'll hold a plane (sometimes several) on the ground at the departure airport to avoid saturation at the arrival airport. I had one capt ask me on the headset one day "How fast can you push us? I'm about three minutes from missing my slot." Passengers delays almost caused him to have to wait TWICE. BWI is normally due to weather, but FLL's ATC are just overworked.
 
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