"OT..?" KSEA - Real Life vs. FS

[PRB]

Last week I flew on a business trip to Seattle, from here in St. Louis, with a stop at Salt Lake City. The flight from KSLC to KSEA was particularly interesting to me, since I’ve never been to Seattle in real life, but flew in and out of there so many times in FS. After returning home yesterday, I decided to recreate the flight from Salt Lake to Seattle in the Alphasim B-47.

The real flight was in a Boeing 737-800, and I was sitting on the left side. We approached from the east, and turned north to make a down-wind leg and left-hand pattern for runway 16 at KSEA. During the downwind leg, we flew a bit east of the tall buildings of Seattle (so I had a good view of them.) Then we turned left 180 degrees (more or less) for the final approach. During the final, I could see Boeing field out my left side window, but the tall buildings of Seattle were to the right of the plane.

While attempting to reproduce that “sight picture” from my B-47, I was amazed. To do it required a pattern that I’m used to doing in a P-38, but not in a “tube.” To make the turn, and pass between the tall buildings (to the right) and Boeing Field (to the left), I had to yank the B-47 beastie into a very fighter-like left-hand turn. I also saw that if you want to land on runway 16 at KSEA, you can’t line up ten miles out or you will fly right over Boeing Field on final, which is probably not allowed.

Very cool stuff!

[THibben]

The approach to SEA from the north is directly over KBFI on a heading of 161 deg. There are three runways at SEA now so depending on which one you are landing at, it will vary a little as to where you pass over BFI. The new runway which is now 16R, may move the flight just slightly to the right of BFI.

If you happen to have a Seattle sectional chart you can see the approach right over the field. When over BFI you are approx 3.4 miles from touchdown and I am guessing approx 1000 ft altitude.

Tom

[PRB]

Very interesting, Tom! It must be a busy place for ATC controllers, trying to “de-conflict” traffic between Boeing field and KSEA!

[srgalahad]

Paul, I spent a bit of time in KBFI tower watching the ops a few years ago while I was still working but I won't claim to be an expert. However, like many other places where traffic overlaps or crosses, most of the tough work is done with set procedures to keep the co-ordination down. Bear in mind that when KSEA is using 16, BFI will be using 13 so the 'flow' is essentially parallel. BFI is also lower (down in the valley) which helps with the small stuff - BFI circuits are restricted geographically and in altitude. It's still pretty complex to an outside observer but they've had years of practice to smooth the flow. The IFR stuff is planned and spaced by the Arrival controller and VFR is.. well.. VFR.

Don't forget, you also get to add in the McChord and Renton traffic :faint:
One thing to note... KSEA traffic overflies KBFI and the 'quietest' place is directly overhead an airport ( unless it's a missile site or VTOL base, not much traffic goes straight up!:rapture
For a good way to spend an afternoon start reading and link-chasing here:
http://www.airnav.com/airport/KBFI
Look up the KSEA info (esp. the SIDs & STARs) and if you put them together you get an idea of how it works

Other places where it's fun are obviously the NYC area, Washington/Baltimore, SFO/Oakland/Bay area and the LA Basin. In almost all situations the basic setup is done with pre-defined routes & altitudes, then the details are worked out "on the fly" or traffic gets restricted/limited/metered. Of course, all it takes is one pilot who doesn't pay attention or doesn't study the rules to 'make your day'.

Rob

[THibben]

You are right, it can get very busy. BFI has two runways, one short for all of the light plane traffic (which there is a lot of) and one long,(9120ft) for all of the jet traffic. Boeing tests all of their new planes out of BFI and does all delivery testing of the 737 a/c out of there. In addition some of the cargo planes use this field.

Jus a few miles south and east at the south end of Lake Washington is the renton field. This is where the 737's are built and fly from there to BFI. There is also a large number of private aircraft at this field.

So yes, there is a lot of aircraft in the air at any given time. I live on the South side of Elliott Bay So see all of the plane coming in to either KSEA or KBFI and most of the ones departing North.

Tom