Ben88 From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 1093 posts, RR: 3 Posted (13 years 1 month 2 weeks 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 757 times:
One of the main reasons why I want a scanner is to follow aircraft from the gate until they take off. Is this possible. I want to be able to hear which runway a plane is going to take off from so that I can beat it there. I'm tired of guessing which runway an interesting plane is going to take off from/land on. A couple of days ago I went to 25R awaiting a plane i've been wanting to shoot for awhile, and it ended up taking off on 24L......what a bummer!! So can the scanner help me? Thanks,
Exnonrev From United States of America, joined Oct 1999, 621 posts, RR: 4 Reply 1, posted (13 years 1 month 2 weeks 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 701 times:
The answer to your question is absolutely. When an a/c is still at the gate, they will call clearance delivery (or the ground control frequency at smaller airports) to have their filed flight plan read back to them. Usually they are told at that time which runway to expect for departure.
During pushback, they will call ground which directs them out of the ramp area. From there they are handed over to the tower frequency which directs them to the runway. Immediately after takeoff, tower hands them over to departure control.
For arrivals, approach control hands the flight over to the tower while they are still several miles from the airport. Upon landing, tower hands off to ground as soon as they clear the runway. Gate assignments are usually given on airline ops frequencies or (usually) over ACARS when a flight makes it's "in-range" report to ops about a half hour before landing. Some airlines (such as CAL at IAH) even have their own ramp control frequencies at hub airports
US ATC frequencies can be found in the Airport/Facility directories published by NOAA/NOS (available at any pilot shop or FBO) or on www.airnav.com
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From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 1093 posts, 
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