A aviation & planes forum. AviationBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » AviationBanter forum » rec.aviation newsgroups » Piloting
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Narrow Runways



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #51  
Old May 12th 05, 02:48 AM
Matt Whiting
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Charles O'Rourke wrote:

Matt Whiting wrote:

I don't remember which field was narrowest, but I believe it was near
Pittsburgh, PA. I'll have to check my log book. I DO remember the
shortest I landed at. It is K9B1. It is less than 1700' with
obstructions at both ends. Landing the Skylane was no problem,
requiring only about 1000' with light braking. However, the sight
picture when I turned final was unnerving. The book said I had plenty
of space so I trusted the numbers.



The pilot I bought my plane from learned at Marlboro (9B1), and he
demonstrated the STOL characteristics of my plane by landing and taking
off at 9B1. What a blast! Coming in down over those trees on short
final is a thrill.


Yes, when I turned final, my first thought was that this runway couldn't
possibly be long enough to land on. However, at some point you have to
trust the numbers and trust your training. It all worked out fine, but
it did get the adrenaline flowing just a little bit more than normal. :-)


Matt
  #52  
Old May 12th 05, 03:49 AM
Bob Chilcoat
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Freehold, NY (1I5) is the narrowest I've ever landed on - 22 feet. I
thought that Stroudsberg Pocono (N53) was narrow at 30 feet, but turning
final at Freehold, it just gets narrower the closer you get. The Cherokee I
was in at the time is 10' between the mains, but on that runway, it seems
like it's a lot wider. You really want to track the centerline. The grass
is cut, however.

In the Northeast in the winter, you have to watch the snowbanks on either
side of the runway. There have been times that I thought that a high wing
might be nice.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"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...



  #53  
Old May 12th 05, 04:09 AM
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Kyle Boatright wrote:
What's the narrowest runway you've ever used?


We flew gliders off the turf in Readington, NJ, some years ago. One
day I followed the Lark around the pattern in an SGS 1-26. The Lark
landed nice and short (I started aiming to land over him), but then
rolled out long and stopped in the middle of the runway. The only
clear space available was the diagonal swath cut by the tractor as he'd
headed for the barn after his last pass down the runway... maybe 12
feet wide, maybe less. The 1-26 sits about 6 inches off the ground and
has glider-sized wings. As I eased her into that skinny little slot,
both wings settled nicely into 12-ish inches of grass.

That was also the shortest landing I've ever made, by a very large
margin. :-|

-Dave Russell
N2S-3

  #54  
Old May 12th 05, 11:42 AM
Cub Driver
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On 11 May 2005 07:57:14 -0700, "Robert M. Gary"
wrote:

15 feet. I was bringing a J-3 home to its new owner and the guy asked
me to bring it to his airfield. It was paved (but cracking) but the
grass around it had grown up onto the runway. Putting a J-3 on a 15
foot wide runway it interesting because you can't see ahead of you (you
fly from the back) I lost sight of the runway just as the wheels
touched. I had to take it on faith that I was still on the runway. Once
I was at taxi speed I could taxi by looking straight down and watching
the wheel.


That's what wheelies are for!

(There is of course a point when the tail comes down. 15 feet is
pretty narrow for S turns!)



-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum:
www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com
the blog: www.danford.net
In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com
  #55  
Old May 12th 05, 11:54 AM
Cub Driver
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Thu, 12 May 2005 01:48:11 GMT, Matt Whiting
wrote:

The pilot I bought my plane from learned at Marlboro (9B1), and he
demonstrated the STOL characteristics of my plane by landing and taking
off at 9B1. What a blast! Coming in down over those trees on short
final is a thrill.


Yes, when I turned final, my first thought was that this runway couldn't
possibly be long enough to land on.


1659 feet is pretty short for a public-use airport. I've heard that
many Cessna drivers won't land at Hampton NH because it's so short
(about 2500 feet).

I think the narrowest paved runway I've ever landed on was 40 feet
(Sterling MA). I was a student pilot, and it seemed noticably narrower
than the 50 feet I was accustomed to land on.

More grass fields of course are much wider--Hampton's I think is 250
feet. They also tend to be on the short side. In Damian Delgaizo's
bush-flying course in Andover NJ he had me landing and taking off on a
strip that was about 250x500 feet. That was in a Husky, however. I
found that the techniques didn't translate very well to a J-3. If you
try to fly the final with power on and nose high in a Cub, the dang
thang will just keep on flying forever.

The bestest field in the world however is a private field near
Hampton: Sanderson's in Hampton NH. There's an ultra-light fly-in
there every July. East-west, maybe 2000 feet, gentle uphill slope to
the east, then a steep hill on the east end, then 50-ft trees, power
lines, a house, the whole nine yards. When you land to the west, you
necessarily miss the hill altogether, and most of the time I miss half
the runway after that. No landing on the numbers there!


-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum:
www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com
the blog: www.danford.net
In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com
  #56  
Old May 12th 05, 01:34 PM
Cecil Chapman
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Though I'm sure it isn't as narrow as some of you have done; my narrowest
(so far) was
30 feet wide.... wing tips of 172 hang over the edges of the runway.
Harris Ranch 3O8 in Coalinga.

--
--
=-----
Good Flights!

Cecil
PP-ASEL-IA
Student - CP-ASEL

Check out my personal flying adventures from my first flight to the
checkride AND the continuing adventures beyond!
Complete with pictures and text at: www.bayareapilot.com

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

"We who fly, do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with
this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
- Cecil Day Lewis -
"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...










  #57  
Old May 12th 05, 01:35 PM
Cecil Chapman
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

15 feet. I was bringing a J-3 home to its new owner and the guy asked
me to bring it to his airfield. It was paved (but cracking) but the
grass around it had grown up onto the runway. Putting a J-3 on a 15
foot wide runway it interesting because you can't see ahead of you (you
fly from the back) I lost sight of the runway just as the wheels
touched. I had to take it on faith that I was still on the runway. Once
I was at taxi speed I could taxi by looking straight down and watching
the wheel.



Geez, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up reading that one!

--
--
=-----
Good Flights!

Cecil
PP-ASEL-IA
Student - CP-ASEL

Check out my personal flying adventures from my first flight to the
checkride AND the continuing adventures beyond!
Complete with pictures and text at: www.bayareapilot.com

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

"We who fly, do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with
this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
- Cecil Day Lewis -
"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
oups.com...

-Robert



  #58  
Old May 12th 05, 11:17 PM
Paul Anton
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


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


I'm based at Spanaway WA S-44 20 feet wide.
When I go X-country EVERYTHING seem wide. Grin

Paul
NC2273H


  #59  
Old May 16th 05, 08:03 PM
Dale
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In article ,
"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...


This one: http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flypics/ghshortfinal.jpg

Same width as Cessna main gear.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Narrow Foil Strips for Ground Plane Dennis Mountains Home Built 22 August 29th 04 01:09 AM
Winds on long runways Casey Wilson Piloting 15 July 17th 04 08:35 AM
Cylinder Wrenches for 0-320A Narrow Deck DAVE Home Built 1 December 31st 03 02:45 PM
Extreme Runways JohnMcGrew Piloting 9 October 25th 03 02:57 PM
fs2002 - increase intensity taxiway and runways' lights? Mark Cherry Simulators 0 September 23rd 03 01:08 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 06:20 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 AviationBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.