Narrow Runways

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...
What's the narrowest runway you've ever used?

40 feet at http://www.airnav.com/airport/F14 (Wichita Valley Airport at
Wichita Falls, Texas).

At what runway width are you
comfortable?

40 feet wasn't too bad, but I'd hate it in a crosswind....probably go
elsewhere.

Among other things, I had an interesting experience yesterday
with a runway that was far narrower than any I'd used before...

On very short final, it became obvious that this strip redefined narrow.
Accoring to the AFD, it is 50' wide, but what the AFD didn't say is that
3'
tall sagebrush grows right to the edge of the strip, and occasionally cuts
into the 50' useful width. Given that 3' sagebrush will hit the RV-6's
wingtips, I probably had 10'-12' clear on each side. Catching the
sagebrush
with a wingtip would have almost certainly caused a groundloop.

Brush on the edge would, in your case, definitely be a potential problem

The 40 footer at F14 just barely covered my 38' wingspan. When I was there a
KingAir was taking off and I had to watch!! :~)

No doubt in my mind that we tend to fly as well as we have too and don't
realize how much more precise we can be until we have too.

Flying gliders with 50 ft wings makes a lot of runways 'interesting'.
Landed on at least one where you have to lift a wing to clear the lights
(Pocono Stoudsburg N53). The trick is to turn off between the lights before
you drop the wing. Too many roadways are unlandable because of reflectors -
especially out west in the 'wide open spaces' where it looks like you can
land anywhere but can't actually do it anywhere with 50' wings. I've landed
on a couple of roads where I had to pick a spot between roadsigns. A number
of glider ports have a 3 ft wide hard strip for TO and Landings with the
single wheel. Even pre-solo pilots do it. Easier than it seems - you fly
as well as you have too.

W88 in Greensboro has a longitidinal split of gravel and 20' asphalt. You
can land on either but it's strange to straddle it. Could be interesting at
night (lol)

I've always been impressed with military trained pilots who seem to have
been trained to do everything on the centerline. Just paying attention
makes it easy.

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...
What's the narrowest runway you've ever used? At what runway width are
you
comfortable? Among other things, I had an interesting experience
yesterday
with a runway that was far narrower than any I'd used before...

We had gone to Dallas for Mother's day, and returned to Atlanta yesterday
in
my RV-6, which is set-up for basic VFR. The weather was marginal for
most
of the way, and we made two unscheduled stops and a couple of 180 degree
course reversals to avoid weather that was below my minimums. This turned
a
3.5 hour trip into an 8 hour odyssey.

Our first 180 turn and unscheduled stop occurred when the ceiling was
lower
than forecast, below my personal minimums, and dropping along our route of
flight. I hit the "nearest" function on the GPS, and retreated to the
nearest airfield to give the FSS a call on the cell phone (we were too low
for radio communication). As we overflew the airfield, I noticed that all
it was was a paved strip and a paved ramp. No buildings nearby. Also, the
strip looked fairly narrow, but I went ahead with the landing anyway.

On very short final, it became obvious that this strip redefined narrow.
Accoring to the AFD, it is 50' wide, but what the AFD didn't say is that
3'
tall sagebrush grows right to the edge of the strip, and occasionally cuts
into the 50' useful width. Given that 3' sagebrush will hit the RV-6's
wingtips, I probably had 10'-12' clear on each side. Catching the
sagebrush
with a wingtip would have almost certainly caused a groundloop.

With this in mind, and concentrating hard enough to cause permanant
forehead
wrinkles, I managed to keep the airplane centered on landing and rollout,
then taxiied (sp?) to the ramp, where I shut down, pulled out the cell
phone
and got exactly zero signal... (Sometimes you can't win.)

So, we fired up again, taxiied out, and I kept the bird out of the weeds
on
takeoff and off we went. In the 30 minutes our detour consumed, the
weather
along the route improved meaningfully, and we made another 225 miles
before
the next unplanned stop.

After a 3 hour wait and a couple of visits with the on-field FSS at
Greenville, MS, we found a safe path around the line of storms on the
Alabama/Mississippi border and came on home. One of the real advantages
to
a relatively high performance airplane is that if the weather allows, you
can get above most of the cumulus and eyeball your way around the
convective
stuff. I'm not sure we would have gotten around yesterday's weather in a
C-172 or Cherokee...

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...
What's the narrowest runway you've ever used? At what runway width are
you comfortable?

Phoenix Regional (A39) @ 4000 x 50

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
Chandler, AZ

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...
What's the narrowest runway you've ever used? At what runway width are
you comfortable?

Well, let's see. There are several 30' and under wide runways in the Puget
Sound area, almost all of which I use on a semi-regular basis, and have
landed on at least once. The narrowest is 24'. It doesn't seem
uncomfortable to me at all. I may have even landed on narrower somewhere,
but if so I don't recall.

In my seaplane, probably the landings with the least margin for lateral
error have been in canals in Florida. I don't actually know how wide they
are, but if you stay in the center, you're fine. As with the runway you
describe, it's not so much the width of the landing surface, as it is the
width of the area the wings must clear. My plane has a 40' wingspan, so the
canals must be wider than that.

In any case, 10' on each side sounds like a LOT of room to me. However, I
will readily grant that comfort depends a lot on pilot experience and
confidence. Even so, I'll point out that when my primary instructor got fed
up with me landing all over the place on Boeing Field's 200' wide runway, he
fixed that by taking me over to Port Orchard with their 28' wide runway and
demonstrating that, when necessary, I had no trouble staying on the
centerline. I was no longer permitted to claim "but it's too hard" back at
Boeing.

Pete

What's the narrowest runway you've ever used?

http://www.airnav.com/airport/L53

Lodi Airpark near Sacramento, CA has an 1875x22ft. runway. If I remember
right there's a ditch on the side too - leaving little room for error.

Also, Harris Ranch (also in CA) has a 30ft. runway which can be really
challenging because in summer afternoons the wind tends to gust straight
across the runway.

http://www.airnav.com/airport/3O8

- Ray

In article ,
"Kyle Boatright" wrote:

What's the narrowest runway you've ever used? At what runway width are you
comfortable?

IIRC Tew-Mac in MA was 26' wide, and it was fine.

My CFII was tired of me landing left of centerline at KBED (150' wide)
so he took me to Tew-Mac. He proved to me that I can land on the
centerline and I proved to him that I can land on the centerline when I
want to. :-)

--
Bob Noel
no one likes an educated mule

I remember that narrow runway at Tew-Mac... but when my CFI took me there he
said it was 21ft...

There is also a runway in NW Abilene TX.. that must have been about 30ft
wide..

BT

"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Kyle Boatright" wrote:

What's the narrowest runway you've ever used? At what runway width are
you
comfortable?

IIRC Tew-Mac in MA was 26' wide, and it was fine.

My CFII was tired of me landing left of centerline at KBED (150' wide)
so he took me to Tew-Mac. He proved to me that I can land on the
centerline and I proved to him that I can land on the centerline when I
want to. :-)

--
Bob Noel
no one likes an educated mule

Kyle Boatright wrote:
What's the narrowest runway you've ever used? At what runway width are you
comfortable? Among other things, I had an interesting experience yesterday
with a runway that was far narrower than any I'd used before...

I think 35' was the narrowest. My comfort level depends on the wind,
etc. In calm conditions, I'd be comfortable with 10'. In a stiff cross
wind, I like at least 50'.


We had gone to Dallas for Mother's day, and returned to Atlanta yesterday in
my RV-6, which is set-up for basic VFR. The weather was marginal for most
of the way, and we made two unscheduled stops and a couple of 180 degree
course reversals to avoid weather that was below my minimums. This turned a
3.5 hour trip into an 8 hour odyssey.

Our first 180 turn and unscheduled stop occurred when the ceiling was lower
than forecast, below my personal minimums, and dropping along our route of
flight. I hit the "nearest" function on the GPS, and retreated to the
nearest airfield to give the FSS a call on the cell phone (we were too low
for radio communication). As we overflew the airfield, I noticed that all
it was was a paved strip and a paved ramp. No buildings nearby. Also, the
strip looked fairly narrow, but I went ahead with the landing anyway.

On very short final, it became obvious that this strip redefined narrow.
Accoring to the AFD, it is 50' wide, but what the AFD didn't say is that 3'
tall sagebrush grows right to the edge of the strip, and occasionally cuts
into the 50' useful width. Given that 3' sagebrush will hit the RV-6's
wingtips, I probably had 10'-12' clear on each side. Catching the sagebrush
with a wingtip would have almost certainly caused a groundloop.

Another good reason to fly a Cessna. :-) We have the same problem with
snow windrows here in the winter.


Matt

I think 35' was the narrowest. My comfort level depends on the wind, etc.
In calm conditions, I'd be comfortable with 10'.

Methinks you exaggerate a tad?

:-)

What's the wheelbase of your plane?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:cvmge.70892$r53.23190@attbi_s21...
I think 35' was the narrowest. My comfort level depends on the wind,
etc.
In calm conditions, I'd be comfortable with 10'.

Methinks you exaggerate a tad?

:-)

What's the wheelbase of your plane?

Me agrees! The wheel span of mine is (I think) 11' 4".