Airport Markings & Signs
Airport markings are a big help for the pilot, they provide information during taxi, take-off and landing and enhance safety. These signs should be uniform around all airports in the world. Certain standards are created for these airport markings and sign systems and every airport operator should comply to these.
The pilot must familiarize him/herself with these markings and they can be found in the relevant documentation. Every country has their own regulations based on ICAO documentation, such as Annex 14, Volume I (Aerodrome Design and Operations) and the Aerodrome Design Manual, Part 4 (Visual Aids).
Runway & Taxiway Markings
Having intimate knowledge of run- and taxiway markings can make life so much easier when visiting other airports than those you are normally used too. Trying to find the airport authority to pay the landing fees or close the flight plan can be a challenge if the signs can not be understood correctly.
Runways
Precision, non precision and visual runways have their own distinct markings, ranging from threshold, designation, centerline, touchdown zone and aiming markers. The image to the right shows a precision runway you might encounter when flying into controlled airports.
Smaller airports usually have no full instrument approach, aircraft fly IFR to a certain altitude and distance and complete the flight VFR. These runways have different markings as shown to the left, bottom image.
Runways can have different markings depending on the fact if there is a precision or non precision approach. Image left top and right above shows these markings.
The runways shown here have 20 as designation, this is aligned with magnetic north. And this should be cross checked with the magnetic compass by the pilot before take off from that runway.
Displaced threshold
Obstacles sometimes makes it necessary to displace the threshold marking, you can see that to the right. There are three possibilities: displaced threshold, taxiway aligned with runway and blast pad or stopway marked with chevrons.
Chevrons indicate an area which is unusable for aircraft landing, taking off and taxi. The color is yellow.
Runway threshold stripes indicate the width of the runway: 4 stripes is 60 feet (18 m), 8 stripes is 100 feet (30 m) and 12 stripes is 150 feet (45 m).
Taxiways
You will see that taxiways have at least a centerline and runway holding markings as a bare minimum. Whenever the taxiway is not separated from other pavement there will be a edge marker. The centerline is a continuous yellow line and the taxiway edge lines can be a double continuous or dashed line. Where the dashed line indicates that there might be a need for aircraft to enter that particular area, e.g. an apron or such.
Holding positions
Aircraft usually hold before entering an active runway. This is marked by a double dashed and continuous yellow line. If there is an ILS approach to that runway there is an extra double yellow line with vertical connecting lines, you need to hold at that position when instructed to do so. The area beyond this line is called the ILS critical area.
Airport signs
Airport have six different types of signs: mandatory, location, direction, destination, information and runway remaining signs. Mandatory and runway holding signs are in red, location signs are predominantly black and yellow text. Direction signs are yellow with black text, sometimes an arrow is added to indicate a direction.
Official resources
For a complete overview please check the latest issue of the FARAIM or any other country specific documentation. ICAO defines recommendations each country should follow so thats a good place to start.
