Lessons from a Narrow Runway

[Ed_Wischmeyer]

Most of us practice up to fly into Oshkosh, but if you?re tired from a week at the show, the flight home can be full of surprises, too.

As a CFI, I can quote chapter and verse about narrow runways, visual illusions, etc., but that knowledge didn?t come in to play the day after Oshkosh when eight days of on the go gave me the kind of fatigue that one night?s sleep won?t touch.

The runway at Marion, IA, is listed in the Airport / Facilities Directory as 150 feet wide, but it doesn?t say that only the middle 26 feet are paved. I?d flown in there years ago, so the runway width didn?t surprise me, but some of what I did when fatigued was a surprise.

On the first landing, as you might guess, the flare was late, i.e., mostly didn?t happen. Predictable. Then I gave a CFI buddy a ride to show him the avionics in my -9A. But on both the first and second landings, somehow I had gotten it into my head that narrow runway meant short, and I flew shallow approaches that weren?t called for and made it harder to touch down where I wanted. Disgusted, I went around the pattern once more and that third landing was passable. (On all takeoffs and landings, I had the centerline absolutely nailed, but I was concentrating so much on the lateral aspect that the longitudinal aspect did not get the attention it needed.)

My normal practice is to take off no flaps, but this made the narrow runway disappear on rotation. The solution was to take off with flaps 20, and that kept the runway in sight. In other planes, I had an after takeoff checklist to cover flap retraction, but the RV-9A checklist doesn?t have that. Yet. Ask me how much later in the flight I discovered the flaps down.

Be careful coming home, too, especially when you?re tired or at unfamiliar airports.

[gasman]

Taking lessons in the late 70's in Petaluma CA, they trained in a Piper tomahawk. At that time, the blacktop runway was no wider than the wingspan of the tomahawk. The runway was about 2000' with a raised road and power lines at one end and a wire fence at the other.

I never knew what a narrow runway was until the day my instructor had me land at Santa Rosa Air Center...... I can't remember how wide it was... 300'?? but it was 10,000' long......

[unitink72]

I was talking to a Marion Airport employee about that very same runway at OSH last week. They are well on their way to ripping that out and building a new, wider one that will be capable of GPS approaches. Sounds like most if not all of the approvals are already in place.

[Mel]

I learned to fly off a 12' wide runway, so my current 20' is WIDE.

As far as remembering to raise the flaps;
1/ If you make every take-off with flaps you will develope a habit.
2/ I have my "gear warning" tied to the flap lever. If I "raise" the gear with flaps down, it reminds me.

You may not have a gear switch on your RV, but mine has been there since 1993 and I use it religiously. It keeps me in practice.

[BobTurner]

Originally Posted by Mel

2/ I have my "gear warning" tied to the flap lever. If I "raise" the gear with flaps down, it reminds me.

You may not have a gear switch on your RV, but mine has been there since 1993 and I use it religiously. It keeps me in practice.

With reasonably priced retractable rentals becoming harder and harder to find, has anyone ever petitioned the FAA to allow an aircraft like this (switches and indicators, nothing actually moves) to be used on commercial and/or initial cfi practical tests?

[Ed_Wischmeyer]

Yes, years ago there was some factory built plane that had a bogus gear switch. Wasn't real useful for narrow runways, though. :-)

[DaleB]

If I'm going to have a non-functional, mis-labeled control on my panel it's going to say "EJECT".

[tfriendshuh]

Originally Posted by DaleB

If I'm going to have a non-functional, mis-labeled control on my panel it's going to say "EJECT".

[AviatorJ]

First time I landed on a 25' wide 2000' long runway I didn't flare much instead bounced on it and was pointing towards the treeline, went all in corrected it and came around landing a bit long but at least on the runway.