32 turns to the active

[SEATAC 400]

I was at Madrid-Barajas Airport in Spain and I requested taxi to the active. I received 32 taxiway turns to get there.

I've never seen so many turns to get to the runway before. Good thing FSX has the progressive taxi arrows.

[UKJim 502]

OMG THAT'S INSANE!

[allardjd 1,853]

LEMD is the very worst of all the 1070 airport diagrams I've done...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took 7 plates to document it properly and the taxiway system designators are just nuts - including many with 4-character designators.

 

Being able to follow ATC taxi instructions without turning on the progressive taxi tool in FS was one of the drivers in getting me started making airport diagrams in the first place.

 

Just a note - if you use the Radar Contact ATC add-on, your clearance to taxi would have been, "Taxi to and hold short of Runway 18L" - no routing given.

 

Thanks for sharing that - it confirms my opinion of that particular airport.

 

John

[mutley 4,498]

OMG THAT'S INSANE!

+1

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Crazy!

[aeromax 10]

Unbelievable ! No one´ll get this taxi clearance...in real life is not the case, otherwise, they could close the airport, i think !.

[allardjd 1,853]

Take a look at the taxiway diagrams. They change the designation of long, straight taxiways at every intersection. It's just an insane situation. I've diagrammed almost 1,100 airports and that is literally the worst system of taxiway names I've ever seen.

 

John

[charlie 6]

I think there are some alternative options for responding to that!

[allardjd 1,853]

Quote

I think there are some alternative options for responding to that!

 

No doubt there are. It would be very interesting to hear from others how they view this.

 

I suspect that the real-world taxi instructions might be a handled a little differently from the FS version.

 

Here's the taxipath he was given...

 

Probably he'd have been given a hold before entering 18L to back-taxi, but that still only eliminates 2 of 32 instructions. That's a handful.

 

You'd think a place with that many taxiways could have found the money to put one more going to the end of 18L.

 

John

[TedG 0]

I have flown out of this airport on VATSIM.

At this sort of lunatic taxiway scheme (ESSA Arlanda in Sweden can be as bad with the "M25-like" ground scheme) I use FS Commander to find the easiest parking spot closest to the active....and in a pinch I'll connect FSC to the sim to get a moving map as all the taxiway names and hold points are labled.

I would have parked at the terminal just left of 36R for that particular active .

[rob16584 42]

That's why I never fly there online!

[SEATAC 400]

Probably he'd have been given a hold before entering 18L to back-taxi, but that still only eliminates 2 of 32 instructions. That's a handful.

John

John, you are correct. As part of the taxi instructions included going down 18L, the active runway, I was told to hold short until incoming traffic cleared.

As I was taxiing down 18L, there are two aircraft on final, with one cleared to land. I got onto the turnoff in plenty of time and then had to wait until they both landed.

Here is a screen shot right after I got off of 18L as I am waiting for takeoff clearance.

One more note, you may have noticed that my taxi routing was not from a ramp or gate. That is because I did not call for clearance or taxi instructions until after I had begun my taxiing. I had not planned on using ATC at all for this flight as I wanted to use real world STAR and SID's, but with all the traffic at LEMD, I decided I better get takeoff clearance. I then cancelled my flight plan after I was airborne.

Richard