Average number of runways?

Number of Runways

  • Just 2 (one in each direction obviously)

    Votes: 26 50.0%

  • 4!

    Votes: 19 36.5%

  • 6 or more.

    Votes: 7 13.5%
  • Total voters
    52
saracelica

saracelica

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saracelica
Went flying today and I wondered if having four runway choices is common or is it usually only one strip of concrete? (2 directions obviously) My local airport use to have 6 directions but they finally closed the one strip to have a bigger parking area. So how many runways do you have at your local airport?
 
saracelica said:
Went flying today and I wondered if having four runway choices is common or is it usually only one strip of concrete? (2 directions obviously) My local airport use to have 6 directions but they finally closed the one strip to have a bigger parking area. So how many runways do you have at your local airport?
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Long Beach where I learned we had 9 runways at the time. The airport I'm currently nearest KFXE, has 4 and KLZU where my plane is now has 2.
 
saracelica said:
Went flying today and I wondered if having four runway choices is common or is it usually only one strip of concrete? (2 directions obviously) My local airport use to have 6 directions but they finally closed the one strip to have a bigger parking area. So how many runways do you have at your local airport?
Click to expand...

I am confused about how you are counting runways. I think what you are counting as two, I would say is one. I would say runway 18/36 is one runway. Is that how you mean your poll to work?
 
18/36 is two runways. Should always be an even number. :)
 
This poll makes my head hurt...and the runway thing is just part of it.
 
If you look at a wind rose for your local area, you'll see how many runways you need. For much of Iowa, two runways are preferred. Half the year a N-S runway is best, the other half of the year a NW-SE runway works best. Some places have winds so steady they onliy need one stripl
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/windrose.html
 
When approving the design of an airport, FAA likes to see 95% wind coverage, and typically will fund however many runways it takes to do that and still have adequate capacity. If the airport is too landlocked or there are other factors that prevent meeting that 95% threshold, then occasionally they will do other things. For example, at Put in Bay, Ohio, they allowed (and funded) the runway to be made wider than warranted by the aircraft using that airport, because the runway orientation only allows about a 90% wind coverage. The rationale is that the extra width will prevent some runway excursions when the crosswind is extreme.
 
My home base KABQ has 4 regular runways and 8 Sara-style runways: 8-26, 12-30, 17-35, 3-21. There's an airport nearby, KLAM, which has 1 one-way runway and 1 Sara runway: 27-9. Landing on 27, takeoff on 9, taking tailwind one way or the other.
 
Ken Ibold said:
The rationale is that the extra width will prevent some runway excursions when the crosswind is extreme.
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I took off diagonally at Questa once. It helps if required length is small and crosswind limit is low. Not sure if it was a good idea, because aborted takeoff turns into a problem, but oh well.
 
jnmeade said:
If you look at a wind rose for your local area, you'll see how many runways you need. For much of Iowa, two runways are preferred. Half the year a N-S runway is best, the other half of the year a NW-SE runway works best. Some places have winds so steady they onliy need one stripl
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/windrose.html
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You mean four runways are preferred. :wink2:
 
14 posts and still not clear if 2 is more usual around the US or is 4 or more the norm at GA airports.
 
saracelica said:
18/36 is two runways. Should always be an even number. :)
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Except for the one direction runway. I believe there are runways that can only be used in one direction, usually due to terrain.
 
zaitcev said:
I took off diagonally at Questa once. It helps if required length is small and crosswind limit is low. Not sure if it was a good idea, because aborted takeoff turns into a problem, but oh well.
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I do it all the time, it's not a big deal, if you abort you can always change course down the runway using differential braking, no reason not to use them if you're aborting.
 
With the old WWII method of the three runways forming a triangle you have the compass cut into 60 degree segments, meaning that the wind will never be more than 30 degrees off the runway heading...
 
Dr. O said:
With the old WWII method of the three runways forming a triangle you have the compass cut into 60 degree segments, meaning that the wind will never be more than 30 degrees off the runway heading...
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20 years ago there were still a bunch of small triangle airports all over. many disused like Miles Square in SoCal were still charted ( on my PP ride the DE pulled out 'take me to Miles Square airport' what huh where? I look on the chart and sure as heck, there it is, been looking at it for weeks and never saw it. Hmmmm slipped left wing down, saw it below, flopped the plane and pointed. "Can you land there?" To save my azz I can land anywhere.) now most all have been plowed under and paved over.
 
My post for 4 just tied it up again (or is that 2 runways?). KWST has 07-25 & 14-32
 
Bob Noel said:
Except for the one direction runway. I believe there are runways that can only be used in one direction, usually due to terrain.
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Except that you'd take off on 18, and land on 36. That's still two runways according to the OP's methodology.
 
LearDriver said:
One piece of pavement. Two runways.
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Negatory. One runway that can be used in two manners:

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft."

...

A runway can normally be used in both directions, and is named for each direction separately: e.g., "runway 33" in one direction is "runway 15" when used in the other. The two numbers always differ by 18 (= 180°).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runway
 
alfadog said:
Negatory. One runway that can be used in two manners:

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft."

...

A runway can normally be used in both directions, and is named for each direction separately: e.g., "runway 33" in one direction is "runway 15" when used in the other. The two numbers always differ by 18 (= 180°).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runway
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I will have to let the training department know that they and the FAA have the whole concept misunderstood then. That would go over well at my next oral.
 
LearDriver said:
I will have to let the training department know that they and the FAA have the whole concept misunderstood then. That would go over well at my next oral.
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I don't think so. If I ask most pilots how many runways a given airport has, I think most will count the number of rectangular strips, not the number of numbers painted on them. If you look at the Wikipedia article it is clear that is how they are discussing how many runways a given airport has. Not that Wikipedia is any authority on anything (I know, I have about 8k edits there) but their refs often are.
 
I don't understand the second option on the survey. 4! means "4 factorial" or 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 or 24. Did you really mean that? :D
 
Ghery said:
I don't understand the second option on the survey. 4! means "4 factorial" or 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 or 24. Did you really mean that? :D
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I will bet everything I own she did not mean that and half of what I own she didn't know 4! equals 24.
 
So far, I have landed at 200 different airports in 24 states. The majority of them have only one strip od grass, asphalt or concrete.
 
alfadog said:
I don't think we would answer the poll the same way. If an airport has one runway, the poll would have us say it has two.
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Correct, the problem is that the poll is counter standard and you both are arguing that the poll is screwed up and you are both correct, now multiply the correct answer by 2 and answer the poll.;)
 
I would say the majority have 2 runways even if one is a short grass crosswind runway for those few days a year.
 
Henning said:
Correct, the problem is that the poll is counter standard and you both are arguing that the poll is screwed up and you are both correct, now multiply the correct answer by 2 and answer the poll.;)
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I already did that and answered 4!.
 
alfadog said:
A runway can normally be used in both directions, and is named for each direction separately: e.g., "runway 33" in one direction is "runway 15" when used in the other. The two numbers always differ by 18 (= 180°).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runway
Click to expand...

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]S90[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=+1]Elk City Airport
Elk City, Idaho, USA[/SIZE][/FONT]
FAA INFORMATION EFFECTIVE 05 APRIL 2012

Runway 14/35

Dimensions: 2600 x 150 ft. / 792 x 46 mSurface: turf/gravel, in poor conditionOperational restrictions: IS A CURVED RY.
:D
 
One Short said:
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]S90[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=+1]Elk City Airport[/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=+1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Elk City, Idaho, USA[/FONT][/SIZE]
FAA INFORMATION EFFECTIVE 05 APRIL 2012

Runway 14/35

Dimensions: 2600 x 150 ft. / 792 x 46 mSurface: turf/gravel, in poor conditionOperational restrictions: IS A CURVED RY.
:D
Click to expand...

Good one! Wow, 30 degrees of bend!

07435.jpg


Hey, that was Wikipedia talking, not me and I mentioned elsewhere that you have to take everything there with a salt shaker or two.
 
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