posted on May, 23 2011 @ 09:29 PM
reply to post by redrose123
NO, not accurate:
They shut down a airport last winter in Florida to change the coordinates.
It's amazing how a minor story gets blown out of proportion. The true facts about the Tampa Airport are, the two parallel north/south runways had to
be re-designated because of a tiny bit of magnetic north pole change (drift) that has been observed and measured for decades.
This was merely a matter of re-painting, and changing some signs along taxiways, and issuing revised charts and such, to reflect the changes.
Airport runways are all numbered according to their magnetic direction, rounded to the nearest whole multiple of ten. Sometimes, a runway's
direction will be "on the cusp"...not 010°, or 360°.....but in-between, like 005.2°. That would normally round 'up' to "010", and
thus, the runway would be designated "01".
If, when last measured (however years ago) the runway's heading was, say....004.4°.....then, that would round down to (we never use '000'°)
360°....or, Runway 36. (Always dropping the last zero).
BTW....Tampa didn't have to "shut down"....temporary runway closures, one at a time, and there is a third east/west runway for use, as well....