Narrowest runway you'd be willing to land on?

evapilotaz said:
Azpilot you have miles of desert on both sides so wing span is not a problem. Keep the wheels center line like normal. Also that’s a private runway. Get permission to land
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Arizona Pilots Association hosts a monthly fly-in there. Their website has the following note:

Grapevine is open full time now, but the third Saturday of each month is a special time with lunch served on Saturday. Come and camp for the weekend!​

Grapevine airport information pamphlet here: http://azpilots.org/images/attachments/GrapevineInfoPamphlet.pdf
 
Some of these strips are gorgeous.... but how the hell do you do that without major prop damage..??
 
C17 Marion, Iowa the paved portion is 26 feet wide but total runway width is listed as 50 I believe (too lazy to look it up right now). As a part of their annual fly-in breakfast last year that had a COPA meeting and had 10-15 come in. Some were quite unhappy that the runway width was mis-advertised. They got a lesson on reading the chart supplement.
 
Kritchlow said:
Some of these strips are gorgeous.... but how the hell do you do that without major prop damage..??
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It can be done, no problem. Always keep the yoke in yer lap, keep power as low as possible at all times, never stop moving once you start.

Easy on the brakes on gravel if possible. With the brakes applied the wheels will pull the gravel up and send it into the tail feathers.

With the thousands of hours I have on gravel and off airport I have never totaled a prop. Gotten a few dings that needed dressing but I never damaged a prop so bad that it needed replaced.
 
Most prop dings are from tires. Choose better tires. Problem solved. Tail damage is from prop thrust. Get a tail dragger and lift the tail. Problem solved. Sometimes it isn't about a narrow strip as much as picking a line to avoid hitting driftwood, trees, or river banks. That's when you'll discover the definition of pucker power!
 
Zeldman said:
It can be done, no problem. Always keep the yoke in yer lap, keep power as low as possible at all times, never stop moving once you start.

Easy on the brakes on gravel if possible. With the brakes applied the wheels will pull the gravel up and send it into the tail feathers.

With the thousands of hours I have on gravel and off airport I have never totaled a prop. Gotten a few dings that needed dressing but I never damaged a prop so bad that it needed replaced.
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Rolling run-up or idle mag check? I've just done rolling run-ups with gravel around but have also messed around with idle mag checks to see if I learn anything different about the engine. So far idle and 1,900 rpm mag checks have told me the same thing.
 
I just got my ticket at the end of December. As a student I landed at W17 lots of times. It's 3000'x36' with a 1.5 degree slope. I've noticed the narrower the runway, the closer to center I am. ;)
 
My home airport is 2,500 x 30. Lots of good practice maintaining centerline and lots of go-arounds too!
 
Clark1961 said:
Rolling run-up or idle mag check? I've just done rolling run-ups with gravel around but have also messed around with idle mag checks to see if I learn anything different about the engine. So far idle and 1,900 rpm mag checks have told me the same thing.
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For me, always rolling unless conditions dictate full length of the runway...
 
I did the bulk of my training at KWEA where the runway is 40 ft. I'd probably feel okay landing on 30'.
 
Clark1961 said:
Rolling run-up or idle mag check? I've just done rolling run-ups with gravel around but have also messed around with idle mag checks to see if I learn anything different about the engine. So far idle and 1,900 rpm mag checks have told me the same thing.
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I did a first thing in the morning runup on the pavement on base in the twin and then check the mags each time I was back at the back at base on the pavement. I have done the idle mag check as well when on a really short strip and loaded to the max.

In the single engine pretty much the same thing, but on the gravel I might do a 1200 rpm rolling runup if I had to back taxi the landing strip.

A lot of the other guys would just do a runup first thing in the morning and that would be it. I was a little more cautious, or paranoid, not sure which...

idahoflier said:
For me, always rolling unless conditions dictate full length of the runway...
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Same here, some of the landing strips were so short I would need every inch of it to get off the ground, no room for a rolling run up.
 
pmanton said:
I was based there for years. Sadly it's about to be bulldozed.
Paul
2AZ1 Salome, AZ
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That was one of the most beautiful little airports I've been to.
We were delivering some cargo and watched as someone took off in a Pitts and rolled inverted and climbed out that way.
 
So Saturday, I headed to 2k9 - Haskell, OK. They are 30x3710 elevation about 500. So plenty of length and I wasn't too worked up about the width. I got into the pattern all is well and good but, I then see this grove of trees slightly right and at the north end of the runway. That worried more than the width of the runway. I came in a bit steeper and used full flaps and it worked out. However, the I think the trees bothered me much more than the width. With abnormal markings, no glide slope indicators it was more concerning. I was also fortunate that the winds were almost right down the runway - gusty, but, aligned.

I think the width of the runway - for me - would be dependent on the surround terrain/features and winds. 30' with favorable winds and no obstructions doesn't concern me. Add in _____ and it makes it more challenging.

Just my thoughts

Dean
 
2Airtime2 said:
I just got my ticket at the end of December. As a student I landed at W17 lots of times. It's 3000'x36' with a 1.5 degree slope. I've noticed the narrower the runway, the closer to center I am. ;)
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....added you to the SOUTHEAST PoA list of potential fly-in peeps.
 
Just to follow up on this post, I flew out to 88AZ today. It's called Grapevine. It's an old forest service air strip that a local club refurbished and got opened up on a somewhat limited basis. It's 40 feet wide. I flew there on Friday AM, and then again with my dad and two boys on Saturday around 2:00 PM. As is typical with the Arizona afternoons, the wind had picked up quite a bit. There was a stiff cross wind, but I put it down right in the middle of the runway (there is no center-line stripe). It's amazing how you just gravitate towards the center when the runway is narrower.
 
I had an issue with that many years back. I eventually realized that I was basically landing with the left wheel roughly the same distance from the edge regardless of runway width. I finally worked out of that habit.
 
azpilot said:
What is the narrowest runway you'd be willing to land on?

The runway at my 'home base' is 75' wide. The narrowest runway I've landed on so far is about 50 feet wide. I've gone there frequently, and it isn't a big deal, but the difference is certainly recognizable.

There is an airstrip about 20 minutes away I want to land at. It is about 40' wide.

This has got me thinking, what is the narrowest runway I'd be willing to try and land on. I always think about runway length, but runway width isn't something I've ever been concerned about before.
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There was a runway at TEW-MAC airport in Massachusetts. Now long since closed. It was 21 ft wide. The local instructors always liked taking students there.

Pepperal Massachusetts 26MA is published at 25ft wide.
 
Stan Cooper said:
Harris Ranch (3O8) parallel to I-5 near Coalinga is a favorite lunch destination for me whether driving or flying. The runway is 30' wide.

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http://www.airnav.com/airport/3O8
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Been there before
 
When I was learning to fly my instructor had me land on 45 foot wide runway during a night cross-country. Did okay, but quite a difference from the 150’ home field.

The strangest thing about it was right after the first landing. We were both looking outside. In the glow of the nav lights off both wingtips you could make out what appeared to be snow berms from recent plowing, a foot and a half high or so, trailing off into the distance. Then, just a split second later it was: Hey wait, it’s July and 75 degrees outside. Just the weeds growing at the runway edge.
 
1RTK1 said:
Been there before
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Harris Ranch is a great $100 burger (or steak) trip from the Bay Area. Been there many times. Less than a 45 minute flight from the Bay area. Also used to stop there for lunch on the way back from my son’s hockey weekends in SoCal. The runway is right next to the freeway, so the other hockey parents would be able to see the plane and know we were relaxing and having a nice lunch and would be home much faster that they because they still had several hours of driving left to get home. Never hurts to demonstrate the truly practical aspects of flying...


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sheep camp.
 

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azpilot said:
Here is the runway in question. Note - I did not record this, I just found the video on youtube. Go to 2:00 for the landing. It has been improved since the video was recorded. (i.e. The weeds were all removed and the asphault has been refinished.)

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Is Grapevine open again? I heard it closed a few years ago. Looks like the runway still has big yellow X’s on it.


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I have regularly taken my Mooney into WV32, that runway is 24 feet wide.
Also have landed the Mooney a half dozen times at WV59. It is 20 feet wide.


azpilot said:
What is the narrowest runway you'd be willing to land on?

The runway at my 'home base' is 75' wide. The narrowest runway I've landed on so far is about 50 feet wide. I've gone there frequently, and it isn't a big deal, but the difference is certainly recognizable.

There is an airstrip about 20 minutes away I want to land at. It is about 40' wide.

This has got me thinking, what is the narrowest runway I'd be willing to try and land on. I always think about runway length, but runway width isn't something I've ever been concerned about before.
Click to expand...
 
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