N395V

Well Known Member
I am about to (maybe) put a runway in my pasture.

Unfortunately my farm sits on the only hills in the State of Mississippi. I need some input from anybody with experience landing on and taking off from sloped runways. Especially RV Cessna 310 and Cirrus drivers.

The runway will be 18/36 grass and 2700' long

On the threshold of 18 are 30' trees 120' past the far end
of 18 are 80' trees.

Looking at my Topo map and other constraints..

The runway will drop 5' from the threshold to the 700'mark then rise 5' to the 1000' mark then drop 15' over the remaining 1000'.

The F1 and the Radial Rocket will have no problem with this but I have a 310 driver and an SR 20 driver interested in using the runway.

I suspect there will also be a few 172 and 182 owners also wanting to build there.


We are 600'msl and in the summer temps avg 90 degf.

As a reference I frequently fly a 310R NA into and out of a flat 2000' grass strip near Atlanta 800msl.

I am usually stopped within 1200 ' and with a moderate load am usually well above the FAA standard 50' tree at the far end of the runway. Same in a 182. A 112 commander (200hp) on the other hand uses 3/4 of the runway for TO and just barely clears the trees.

Any comments thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.
 
N395V said:
The runway will drop 5' from the threshold to the 700'mark then rise 5' to the 1000' mark then drop 15' over the remaining 1000'.
Have you considered what would be required to bring in a dozer and level out the terrain? It sounds like the 5' drops could be easily leveled out. Perhaps the 5' rise could be pushed down into the area that has the 5' drop. I guess it all depends on the surrounding terrain as to whether you could level the entire 2700' strip.

Just my thoughts without knowing any more than what you have posted.
 
Sounds like some basic cut/fill is in order (depending on drainage) if you're wanting to use this as a surrounding property value proposition. I work for a civil engineering company and this is a pretty mild operation in the comercial development world.