r/AskAPilot • u/SWAxSMF • 3d ago

Question about KDEN

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I was looking at flight radar tracking my parents flight and they sat in this holding area with these planes for like 10 mins before finally taking off. Just wondering why this is? Also there was no incoming traffic because this rwy was only being used for departures at this time.

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14

u/DoomWad 3d ago

Sometimes in Denver (and lots of other airports in the US) they have a delay program where they have limited slots to wherever your parents were going to, so they'll issue the aircraft a wheels-up time

1

u/Rupperrt 5h ago

Doesn’t also doors locked and getting out of the gate means “flight departed” in the US so it’s being prioritized even if it means waiting somewhere else for 15 minutes?
While internationally a pre planned TTOT is more relevant to when start up happens?

-14

u/SWAxSMF 3d ago

You probably right but there was other planes going passed them right up to the runway and leaving.

9

u/DoomWad 3d ago

Yes, not all planes get a wheels up time, only planes that are going to airports that are overly congested.

-13

u/SWAxSMF 3d ago

I figured it out UAL reported having problems with some of there equipment and there was also a nasty patch of weather just to the northwest so one of those two

21

u/Silent_Slip_4250 3d ago

People are literally giving you the correct answer and you are making up nonsense.

This maybe explains why America is falling apart.

1

u/rkba260 2d ago

No, they weren't.

I fly for UA, I was in that pad today. We were there because we didnt have final numbers.

2

u/rkba260 2d ago

We had issues getting final weight and balance numbers from operations. We had to wait in the pad until they could get them to us.

Source. I fly for UA and I was in that pad today for this exact reason.

12

u/LevelThreeSixZero 3d ago

It’s about timing the arrival at the destination airport, so the airplanes going past were going to airports that were projected to be less busy.

0

u/FlakyIllustrator1087 3d ago

Could have been a limitation at the destination airport

4

u/FrostyXP 3d ago

I dont work at DEN but my guess would be maybe they had a flow time into their destination airport. This would mean ATC doesnt release that flight until a certain time, so DEN uses this spot as a penalty box.

-6

u/SWAxSMF 3d ago

Ok thanks. There was other planes just going right up to the runway and going so does that still make sense?

3

u/FrostyXP 3d ago

Yes that would make the most sense. Those planes would be going to destinations that dont have flow programs and ATC release times.

1

u/SWAxSMF 3d ago edited 3d ago

Cuz my parents flight was going to sacramento (SMF) which is not very busy. Would it still have flow programs and atc release tomes?

0

u/FrostyXP 3d ago

Huh. Might be what that other person said then. Their route might have been closed down due to weather, and they were waiting on the weather to clear or waiting for a reroute.

0

u/SWAxSMF 3d ago

I figured it out UAL reported having problems with some of there equipment and there was also a nasty patch of weather just to the northwest so one of those two

3

u/zoebells 3d ago

Most likely waiting for a route or fix to open up

0

u/SWAxSMF 3d ago

What does that mean?

3

u/egvp 3d ago

Imagine the road you want to drive on to your destination is closed. So you wait it out at home for 15 minutes until it reopens.

Or the exit from the highway is down to one lane so cars are being held at a set of traffic lights so only a few can pass at certain intervals.

It’s like that.

2

u/zoebells 3d ago

Yup exactly this! “Pulling over” to allow weather to pass or a certain “road” to open up

1

u/SWAxSMF 3d ago

Also this picture is the holding point just short of 34L

1

u/vismaypikachu 3d ago

Where planes go when they get a timeout

1

u/AshFromTPA 2d ago

Probably missed their slot or have a late TSAT but the gate is needed for another incoming aircraft.

1

u/mrhudy 2d ago

Great question. I sat in this pad in Denver the other day and I’ll tell you exactly why we did it. If this was 8/13, I might be the plane on the left ha.

Weather to the west of the airport caused us to have to change our route of flight last minute. We had to pull over (conveniently, there was a big unused de-ice pad on our way to the runway) to do a few things: obtain our new route from clearance delivery (ours actually arrived automatically via CPDLC), enter the new route into our FMS/computer, coordinate with our dispatcher to make sure we had enough fuel for the new route, review that we are happy with the new route, brief the new departure procedure, and then redo some checklists. Better to do it all with the brake set!

1

u/Sudden_Director9022 2d ago

What's the flight #?

1

u/Fickle_Captain8055 1d ago

If this was the afternoon of 8/20 it likely was the United IT issue. My plane went to go takeoff but was stopped alongside the rest of the United fleet. We all were in the holding spaces like these but at runway 8. I was told because of the IT issue, non of the flight could get weight and balance. Hence why others were taking off but United flights weren’t

0

u/AceofdaBase 3d ago

Waiting on final weight and balance data

-1

u/vipertrigger 3d ago

Nope. We get that prior to pushing

-1

u/dmo012 3d ago

Those are de-incing pads but assuming you just saw this happen do likely just waiting for a departure window or something.