San Jose Airport Takeoff Clearance

On a recent flight, we landed at SJC airport on the left runway, 30L. There is some construction there as they seem to be converting what used to be runway 11/29 into a taxiway so the airport diagram no longer matches the actual airport configuration. We exited the runway on Golf and requested taxi back for takeoff. The taxi clearance was taxi to 30L via Whiskey One, Delta, Whiskey. Upon reaching the end of the taxiway we saw the runway entrance sign as pictured below. As you can see, the runway entrance sign is slightly different than the usual sign in that it has both runway #s (12R and 30L) which indicates that this is not the start of the runway, however this is where SJC tower expects you to depart. So your clearance will explicitly state Runway 30L at Bravo, cleared for takeoff. The read back should also indicate 30L at Bravo.

Back Taxi?

I had a new tower instruction on a flight with a friend today. He was PIC and we had landed at RHV and were cleared for left closed traffic with the option from runway 31L. He flew the appropriate pattern and landed on 31L. As we slowed down and were about to turn off the runway RHV tower gave a clearance of back taxi 31L clear for takeoff 31L. Until this experience, back taxi is mainly used at non-towered airports that don’t have a taxiway.