Iowa City Airport in the News

George Patterson writes:

Jose wrote:
And what the heck! Another bonus is that WalMart roofs make a pretty good
small plane emergency landing place! (WINK-GRIN)
I suspect they wouldn't hold up, but does anybody know for sure?

Roofs in this area of NJ are designed for a snow load of around 30 pounds per
square foot.

Surely they're designed to hold more than that over a smaller area than the
entire roof, though. Otherwise you couldn't even think about standing on them.

I expect they're stronger in Iowa, but they're still not designed to hold a
typical small plane.

No doubt.

Dan.

--
PGP key at http://www.longhands.org/drg-pgp.txt Key Id:0x507D93DF

"George Patterson" wrote

Roofs in this area of NJ are designed for a snow load of around 30 pounds
per
square foot. I expect they're stronger in Iowa, but they're still not
designed
to hold a typical small plane.

George Patterson

That is a bit of a missunderstanding. If you had snow, level on the roof,
up to where there was 30 lbs/sq. ft, that would load the roof to a point
that it would do no damage to the roof, and even more significant, it would
not sag more than a certain amount that is determined by a formula, with
span heavily considered. Add on to this, that the design safety margin is
about a factor of two, so you could load the roof to 60 lbs, and the roof
might be close to failing.

This small plane on the roof would have more weight per square foot than the
30 pounds, but would be way less than the amount of weight of the snow in
that span/area.

If the material the deck is made of would be strong enough to spread the
load without failing, it would not be an issue. This is most likely the
case, since the roof deck is made of steel, dense foam, and rubber membrane.
The foam has no strength, but would deform and absorb much of the force of
the impact.

Another thing that was unsaid is that the roof and the plane would need
repair; perhaps considerable repair. It would still beat landing on a
house, or a full parking lot with poles all over, or a street full of cars
and poles and wires. A field would beat the h*ll out of the roof or all of
those other places.

That said, I don't want to be put in the situation of any of the choices,
but the roof landing done under control should not involve any fatalities.
--
Jim in NC

George Patterson wrote:
Jose wrote:

And what the heck! Another bonus is that WalMart roofs make a pretty
good
small plane emergency landing place! (WINK-GRIN)



I suspect they wouldn't hold up, but does anybody know for sure?


Roofs in this area of NJ are designed for a snow load of around 30
pounds per square foot. I expect they're stronger in Iowa, but they're
still not designed to hold a typical small plane.

George Patterson
Whosoever bloweth not his own horn, the same shall remain unblown.

If the roof sheating can handle the "point" load of the gear, which many
likely can, the overall weight of the plane won't be a problem for the
underlying structure. I would suspect most commercial buildings would
handle a "normal" touchdown of a typical light plane.

Even at 30 psf, a 10x10 patch of roof will hold 3,000 lbs.


Matt

Go to http://registry.faa.gov/arquery.asp and search for the names
WAL-MART and WALMART. I heard of a case where an employee complained
of harrassment and WM had an investigation team from headquarters in
the store before the day was over. Sam Walton puttered around from
store to store in the early days in a Tri-Pacer.
--
Gene Seibel
Hangar 131 - http://pad39a.com/gene/plane.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.

Go to http://registry.faa.gov/arquery.asp and search for the names
WAL-MART and WALMART. I heard of a case where an employee complained
of harrassment and WM had an investigation team from headquarters in
the store before the day was over. Sam Walton puttered around from
store to store in the early days in a Tri-Pacer.

He also you used to proudly display "Made in America" on the walls of his
stores.

Those were gone before his body was cold in the grave...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:%gn5e.13830$yg7.1799@attbi_s51...

He also you used to proudly display "Made in America" on the walls of his stores.


and the sad thing is folks still think they follow that mantra...

"Blueskies" wrote

and the sad thing is folks still think they follow that mantra...

I don't think so. Made in china is proudly stamped in plane view, on most
things.
--
Jim in NC

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:%gn5e.13830$yg7.1799@attbi_s51...

He also you used to proudly display "Made in America" on the walls of his
stores.

Those were gone before his body was cold in the grave...

Thing is, many American products were discontinued due to QUALITY issues
(returns seven times the average) not for COST. Further, many such products
are not even made in the US anymore.

ANECDOTE": Our neighbor owns/runs a boutique housewares store. Probably
three our four years ago, my wife was trying to buy a vase and noticed they
were all made in China. She asked if there were others (she was boycotting
China...still does more or less) and the lady said that she always had to
return 3/4ths of the shipments due to poor finish or other such issues, even
ones that cost four or five times as much a comparable ones from China.

In short, the US tried to compete on price instead of quality and wound up
losing on both scores.

In article ,
"Matt Barrow" wrote:
In short, the US tried to compete on price instead of quality and wound up
losing on both scores.

It's difficult to hold people accountable for a quality product when
labor laws protect those people who do not produce a quality product.
It's also difficult to stay in business when your wage-earners aren't
producing enough to make their employment profitable.

To be fair, there are unionized companies who are very successful,
produce high quality products, and are profitable. I suspect a
distinguishing characteristic of these companies is good morale, which
is directly tied to the type of management practiced.



JKG

"Jonathan Goodish" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Matt Barrow" wrote:
In short, the US tried to compete on price instead of quality and wound
up
losing on both scores.

It's difficult to hold people accountable for a quality product when
labor laws protect those people who do not produce a quality product.
It's also difficult to stay in business when your wage-earners aren't
producing enough to make their employment profitable.

I agree with the high wage problem but what labor law are you citing?



To be fair, there are unionized companies who are very successful,
produce high quality products, and are profitable. I suspect a
distinguishing characteristic of these companies is good morale, which
is directly tied to the type of management practiced.


I'll agree with that.