wrote:
Our glider club has good relations with our home airport. The airport
manager is creating a master plan for renovations of runways and
taxiways, and is receptive to ideas that will help create smoother
operations for mixed power and sailplane traffic. One of the key goals
is to minimize the time on runway for sailplane hookups and take-offs.
If you have an example of an airport layout that help in this regard
(perhaps angled taxiways, pull-offs, etc.), please let us know.

--Jay Newell

We have several operations with significant, mixed glider and power
traffic in Region II.

The best feature separate (parallel) glider and power runways.
Gliders and tug stage on the glider runway and coordinate takeoffs with
the power runway (visually and with a radio call). Blairstown, NJ
(1N7) is a good example. We can stage a bunch of ships and launch
between power operations. It's wide enough that there is still room
for gliders to land on the grass even with ships staged for takeoff.


Van Sant Airport (9N1) is an interesting example, since it uses two
different schemes. Taking off to the SW, the main runway (25) is
augmented by a glider runway (23). This forms a "Y" shape. Gliders
tow out on 23 then bank 20 degrees right to join the 25 departure.
On landing, gliders use 23. Again, it's important to coordinate
departures with the power traffic. For takeoff to the NE (07), we
use the angled takeoff. Glider and tug stage off the left side of the
runway. The tow then tugs the glider out at a 30 degree angle until
both ships are more or less on the center line, then smoothly
accelerates to takeoff . Similar to the technique described elsewhere.


At both of these very active operations, we seem to average maybe one
power go-around per hour on a busy weekend, and this is usually a
transient who is unfamiliar with the local customs. See the AFD for
diagrams or email directly for more details.

Erik Mann
SSA NJ Governor