In planning for an RC Flying field, are there any standards for how long and wide a runway should be? Assuming scale .60 size aircraft, grass surface, no jets, and no obstructions on any side, what would be the minimum dimensions for the actual runway?

I know there are a lot of variables here, a big one being pilot proficiency, but I am wondering how small some of the fields are that folks are using.

Our runway is 40 ft wide and around 300 ft long.

Everything from electrics to 42% gassers fly there. Though
the electrics seem to have a hard time finding the runway

That's probably the pilots though,

Bob

Grass. 60 yards by 8 yards. Unobstructed approaches.

We have a paved runway but that really doesn't matter. It's 30 feet wide by 450 in length. It is fine for glow planes up to about 20cc and gassers up to 40% scale but not for jets. Novice pilots can have difficulty because of the width and if I were designing a new field I'd look for a minimum of 40 foot width for either grass or pavement. And keep the 'run off' areas surrounding the runway clear as any irregularities there can cause landing gear damage.

Best of luck over there.

Our club has two crossing runways that are about 100' wide and 900' long( http://baycityflyers.org/id15.html ). Those, on occasion, are not big enough

Smallest field I've flown .60 sized planes on is 90' x 300', with a tree-line on each side of the field, aligned with the flightline. crops surround all four sides, and if the farmer plants corn, it makes things even more interesting!

My sport/3D planes do fine, but I have a Mustang with retracts that I don't really want to fly there, I like to have a little more runway to bring her in.

In addition to field size, you must consider your safe & allowed flyover area. You'll want at least 35 acres or more for .60 sized planes. My club (with the 90'x300' runway) has about 37 acres of fly-over area.

http://www.flyingcropdusters.org

Mate you got it easyif you think you might just land it in the back yard.

Our runway is 48' x 500' and some pilots still can't hit it. [:@]

Our club field runway is about 600' long and 55' wide. I've been teaching my son to fly and when he lands he is almost always 10' off the runway away from the pilot stations. We then did a flyin in another city where they were using a full scale airport (nice facilities) 125' wide by way way long. Wanna guess where my son landed? Yep, your right, the same 10' off from the runway away from the pilot stations!

You will find that no matter how big you make it someone will complain that it is too narrow or short. 300'x30' with unobstructed approaches is enough for most pilots with a little practice. Free of obstructions is the key.

thailazer,

I fly from grass, and nobody there needs more than 100 m x 25 m.

Track of Sun in the sky and prevalent wind direction are major factors to consider.

These two documents published by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) may be interesting to you:

http://www.modelaircraft.org/files/706.pdf

http://www.modelaircraft.org/files/105.pdf

Thank's all for the replies. Lot's of lucky pilots with long runways out there. I fly off a friend's field which was designed for jets so it is comparable to the 500 foot fields. A new place we are looking at would be totally clear of obstructions but a runway of only 160 feet by 35 feet. Would be nice to have a retirement hacienda with a private flying field right out front!

Antelope Valley Tailwinds field at Lancaster CA.
The original runway was 440x40, the blacktop in the photo.
That had the 600x40 concrete added for jets and things 15 years ago.

Try 150 x 1000 ft paved. It is going to be darn hard to go home to Texas and land on those postage stamp runways again!

Bedford

bobbeagle.... You've got the smallest runway of all those that responded. What kind of aircraft are you flying there?

I bought a private runway not long ago, it's 150 x 2,000 paved. AMA stay away, you are NOT invited and I'm the boss.

That's all that's required. If you are good at cross-wind landings and take-offs or have very consistant winds.

However, at our field we share with full-size aircraft and some days 2,500 ft by 200 feet isn't enough. At our Mini-fest this weekend we had several in the weeds.

Last winter we were flying at a sports complex with four soccer fields and yours truly tried to land in un-stepped in snow and instead the only tree within 1,000 feet grabbed my Hot Stik.

Sorry for the delay in responding; I only picked up this thread today.


In answer to your question ... we fly general sport models and light scale types. We don't fly gas turbines, but there are quite a few of those electric ducted fans.

The largest model that I have personally flown there was my 120" Bird Dog ... but that's a slow machine, with effective flaps.

Usually, you'll find the standard crop of models up to about 84" span ... Harvard, 1/4 scale bipes, Me 109s @ 72", those 3-D generic Extras, lots of Flair models, such as Magnatillas and DV11s, DB Hurricane. It's all quite modest, I suppose.

The runway is grass. It is surrounded by pasture which is grazed by cattle. The pasture is very "clumpy" and you really don't want to be setting down on it. However, the approaches are pretty good. It's not a good place for retracts, unless you are a confident pilot.


All that said, it's not as bad as you'd think, nor as difficult as you might imagine. New flyers turn up and they don't question the runway' length ... they just learn to cope with it.

It's all about speed control.



A few years ago, the club split and some began flying on a nearby military airfield (Leconfield). I went there a few times and the change/difference was remarkable. Within a very few weeks, much of the discipline had gone. With vast expanses of concrete, the guys were landing their models almost carelessly.

Then, after a few years, the military airfield was lost to development and that club was left homeless. Remarkably, very few of those blokes were willing to return to the short grass runway, often citing its short length as the deciding factor.

What I'd really like, though, is the best of both worlds ... a nice long, grass runway, with clearly defined threshold markings. That way, I could still work at nailing my landings, yet not be punished for making mistakes. I can dream.

Thanks for the response Bob... Good information.

Ended up with a runway about 200 feet long by 32 feet wide and it's big enough. Here's a short video from the first flights off of it. Not exactly my best day of flying but some good views anyway. Once the rainy season is done the runway will get a layer of fine gravel and then it gets rolled. Runway comes before the hacienda! Have to have something to do while the builders build......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csftRjVXoDc

I appreciate everyone's past inputs on this thread as it helped me a lot.

Wow! you all have it so easy!

In our club the runway is some 70 meters by 6 meters (230x20 feet).

I fly my 30cc gasser out of there with no problems..
I just HAVE to touch down at the head of the runway or go around...
Infact my 3d 30cc gasser uses FAR less runway than my extra 300SP (40 sized glow).

We are on rented land where we have to leave and relocate in just 3 years. so we made it out of normal bagged cement.
It is very delicate, but we want ot be able to rip it up with hand tools when we come to move on.
(its all to do with a farmers crop rotation, we will end up with another plot of land by the same owner for a few years again while he moves his crop around, I dont fully understand it, but its how we have it.)

I mostly fly on a dry lake. Is like 1.5 miles by 3.5 miles. And yes, I have missed the runway twice! Damn Planes look closer than they really are.

But if you have a nice steady 20 mph wind, you can use a picnic table in a pinch.

We have a field that is laid out as in the image attached.

The problems with width can be minimised if you paint a white line down the centre. Our pilots all now look for the centre line and there is no need for such a wide runway.

For the length- the pilot always land close to themselves so if the pilots box is close to the start of the runway it makes for a shorter runway. If the pilots box is in the centre almost half odf the runway is not used

Carps ... you are talking my language. To have the pilots' station at mid-point is just so dumb!



{duck-and-cover}

I have to post, just to show mine off. It is 45'x500' of Petromatt. The wind blows all the time so the 500' is plenty. 300' would have done fine, but we did not know. 60' wide would have been more usefull than the extra length.

david