Private, utility, bush, Strip requirements

[OverRun]

I was waiting for PullRedHandleToEject to come back with comments before I finished off the discussion, but in his absence, I don’t want to leave this discussion on the server for others to read later, without adding the necessary cautions.

Building a bush strip and building a licensed (or licensable) airport are very different things. The ICAO rules are complex, and get more onerous with increasing aircraft size. There are many examples where a bush strip has been built and worked well for a C210 or occasional Navajo. But over the years, as traffic has grown and the planes got bigger, the place becomes an awkward unpleasant sub-standard facility that will never meet ICAO Code 3 standards. For historical amusement, the old runway at KNX / YPKU (decommissioned and now used as a taxiway) pointed straight at the nearest mountain because it was originally pegged as a bush strip for a C172 and that was good enough. Proved rather awkward for F28s. In the end, the only way forward was to build a new runway.

I mentioned in my earlier post the four downloadables on DESIGN, and those plus some commonsense and some piloting knowledge are a good start for a bush strip. A lot get built like that, and work well. But please don’t think that this will let anyone design a proper airport. It's like giving me the pilot's manual to a KingAir and then expecting me to fly it. I'll get it started, and I'll get it off the ground, but I won’t consistently get it back on the ground right side up. If you need a KingAir pilot, get a proper one. If you need a proper airport, then you need an airport engineer to design it properly.

I've just given some advice to a small aerodrome operator looking for a way to upgrade their gravel strip, and let me paraphrase it here:
There are a number of technical requirements for runways and taxiways common with those needed for roads. There are also some specific airport requirements which the designer must consider. Typically a runway is more complex than a road.

To be surfaced successfully, a gravel runway or taxiway must be sound, without loose material, well drained, and have enough depth and strength. The runway seal must be specially designed. In addition, at aerodromes, the transverse and longitudinal gradients and the clearances between aircraft and other objects must meet CASA/ICAO/CAA/FAA requirements, amongst other things. The airport owner will need to get a competent and experienced airport engineer/inspector to advise them and to investigate/design to meet these requirements. The local contractors and the local Council typically can contribute useful experience from road construction, but it still needs the additional input from the airport engineer.