How many landings will aircraft tires hold?

[Oliver Arend]

I know the answer is "it depends", but let's say you are in a regular
light airplane (C152, C172 ...) with "real" aircraft tires and you do
normal landings without excessive load, speed or crosswind. It will
still depend on the surface of the runway, but generally, is the
number more on the order of 10s of landings (change rather often),
100s of landings (maybe get through one busy flying season with one
set) or 1000s of landings (last forever until aging kicks in)?

Oliver

[Ron Wanttaja[_2_]]

On 1/27/2011 4:28 AM, Oliver Arend wrote:
> I know the answer is "it depends", but let's say you are in a regular
> light airplane (C152, C172 ...) with "real" aircraft tires and you do
> normal landings without excessive load, speed or crosswind. It will
> still depend on the surface of the runway, but generally, is the
> number more on the order of 10s of landings (change rather often),
> 100s of landings (maybe get through one busy flying season with one
> set) or 1000s of landings (last forever until aging kicks in)?

For my Fly Baby, I'd put the answer at roughly 500-750 landings. I
typically fly for an hour or less, and usually shoot several touch and
goes on each flight. The last set I replaced lasted 200 hours, and they
were used when I got them.

Ron Wanttaja

[Tom De Moor]

In article <f968bf79-fd8f-419a-b408-a539fd619842
@r4g2000vbq.googlegroups.com>, says...
>
> I know the answer is "it depends", but let's say you are in a regular
> light airplane (C152, C172 ...) with "real" aircraft tires and you do
> normal landings without excessive load, speed or crosswind. It will
> still depend on the surface of the runway, but generally, is the
> number more on the order of 10s of landings (change rather often),
> 100s of landings (maybe get through one busy flying season with one
> set) or 1000s of landings (last forever until aging kicks in)?
>
> Oliver

When I bought the plane, the main tires were used (central stripe gone
but no sign of canvas). It had done 440 landings.

In about 14 months I have put around 170 landings on the new mains (the
nose wheel is still the orginal of 1992 vintage). I can't see any marks
of use on the exception that the little 'barbs' of rubber are gone.

However I fly mostly from and to grass strips and since I saw the
thickness and price of new brakepads, I keep a sharp look at landing
speed (1.2 x Vstall) and stopped braking :-)

Cheerio!

Tom De Moor

[Brian Whatcott]

On 1/27/2011 6:28 AM, Oliver Arend wrote:
> I know the answer is "it depends", but let's say you are in a regular
> light airplane (C152, C172 ...) with "real" aircraft tires and you do
> normal landings without excessive load, speed or crosswind. It will
> still depend on the surface of the runway, but generally, is the
> number more on the order of 10s of landings (change rather often),
> 100s of landings (maybe get through one busy flying season with one
> set) or 1000s of landings (last forever until aging kicks in)?
>
> Oliver

In the South West, an average owner might need to change a tire or two
less often than 5 or 7 years, except the ozone/UV gets to cracking them
and then its time for more retreads.

Brian W

[[email protected]]

On Jan 27, 5:28*am, Oliver Arend > wrote:
> I know the answer is "it depends", but let's say you are in a regular
> light airplane (C152, C172 ...) with "real" aircraft tires and you do
> normal landings without excessive load, speed or crosswind. It will
> still depend on the surface of the runway, but generally, is the
> number more on the order of 10s of landings (change rather often),
> 100s of landings (maybe get through one busy flying season with one
> set) or 1000s of landings (last forever until aging kicks in)?
>
> Oliver


It's not the landings that kill tires. It's the braking forces. Pilots
who land long and/or fast will use a lot of brake to try to stop the
airplane, and braking scrubs rubber off real quick even if the tire
isn't "skidding."

Dan

[Alan Baker]

In article
>,
wrote:

> On Jan 27, 5:28*am, Oliver Arend > wrote:
> > I know the answer is "it depends", but let's say you are in a regular
> > light airplane (C152, C172 ...) with "real" aircraft tires and you do
> > normal landings without excessive load, speed or crosswind. It will
> > still depend on the surface of the runway, but generally, is the
> > number more on the order of 10s of landings (change rather often),
> > 100s of landings (maybe get through one busy flying season with one
> > set) or 1000s of landings (last forever until aging kicks in)?
> >
> > Oliver
>
>
> It's not the landings that kill tires. It's the braking forces. Pilots
> who land long and/or fast will use a lot of brake to try to stop the
> airplane, and braking scrubs rubber off real quick even if the tire
> isn't "skidding."
>
> Dan

Ummmmm.... ...where did you learn this?

--
Alan Baker
Vancouver, British Columbia
<http://gallery.me.com/alangbaker/100008/DSCF0162/web.jpg>

[[email protected]]

On Feb 20, 7:38*pm, Alan Baker > wrote:
> In article
> >,
>
>
>
> wrote:
>
> > It's not the landings that kill tires. It's the braking forces. Pilots
> > who land long and/or fast will use a lot of brake to try to stop the
> > airplane, and braking scrubs rubber off real quick even if the tire
> > isn't "skidding."
>
> > Dan
>
> Ummmmm.... ...where did you learn this?

I am the Director of Aircraft Maintenance for a flight school. Eight
airplanes. I was also a flight instructor for some time and still hold
a Commercial ticket. When we start teaching short-field landings, the
tires suffer. Ordinary circuit work isn't nearly hard on them unless
the landings are crabbed. 38 years around airplanes teaches one some
things, I would think.

A retired airline pilot told me the same thing: The tires on the big
birds suffer more from braking than the touchdown.

Dan

[Harry K]

On Jan 27, 4:28*am, Oliver Arend > wrote:
> I know the answer is "it depends", but let's say you are in a regular
> light airplane (C152, C172 ...) with "real" aircraft tires and you do
> normal landings without excessive load, speed or crosswind. It will
> still depend on the surface of the runway, but generally, is the
> number more on the order of 10s of landings (change rather often),
> 100s of landings (maybe get through one busy flying season with one
> set) or 1000s of landings (last forever until aging kicks in)?
>
> Oliver

I often wondered how often the big planes change. I worked in a
faciltiy building agricultural fertilizer applicators (up to 90' wide)
that used what we called "bomber tires". Huge things taken off planes
that I had to trim the tapered bead to a flat one to fit our wheels.
Did hundreds of them. They showed hardly any wear at all.

Harry K

[Dan[_12_]]

On 2/24/2011 10:48 AM, Harry K wrote:
> On Jan 27, 4:28 am, Oliver > wrote:
>> I know the answer is "it depends", but let's say you are in a regular
>> light airplane (C152, C172 ...) with "real" aircraft tires and you do
>> normal landings without excessive load, speed or crosswind. It will
>> still depend on the surface of the runway, but generally, is the
>> number more on the order of 10s of landings (change rather often),
>> 100s of landings (maybe get through one busy flying season with one
>> set) or 1000s of landings (last forever until aging kicks in)?
>>
>> Oliver
>
> I often wondered how often the big planes change. I worked in a
> faciltiy building agricultural fertilizer applicators (up to 90' wide)
> that used what we called "bomber tires". Huge things taken off planes
> that I had to trim the tapered bead to a flat one to fit our wheels.
> Did hundreds of them. They showed hardly any wear at all.
>
> Harry K

I don't know about commercial, but USAF used to change tires when
wear reached a certain point dictated by mission requirements and
location. If an aircraft was being flown to home station, depot or the
bone yard they's be authorized a one time flight on red threads. Many
times we changed tires that had plenty of life left. I retired in 1994
and things may have changed since then.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

[RST Engineering[_2_]]

If you are operating from a grass strip, the tires will outlast the
airframe.

Jim