Shortest length runways?
 

Hi guys,

Just curious to know what is the shortest runway you've ever landed on.

Umm, a very unimpressive 600m...

I presume you also include the subsequent take off? :) :)

About 400m in a C150.

About 450m in a BE36 although for that I started accelerating while turning around after backtracking. The initial climb after rotation wasn't over the runway sfc. Not that there was much difference between the rwy surface & the scrub around it, apart from slightly fewer trees & the old tyres, piles of rocks etc that marked the area.

Used to do touch & go's on YBCG's short strip. I think that one is about 500+ m (anyone have the correct distance?).

[This message has been edited by Tinstaafl (edited 15 April 2001).]

Weston Zoyland, 300m, concrete, slightly downwind.

G

Netherthorpe's 18\36, 375m. Interesting flapless approach!

Cardiff .... in a 747-400!

Rod

I did my PPL at Netherthorpe. Rnwy 18 has a LDA of 357m. The 'Long' Rnwy is 24 with an LDA 407m with a 1.9% upslope.

The smell of fear is a C-150, 2 up with half tanks in nil wind.

A now closed grass strip in Odense, Denmark. 695 meters - not that impressive.

Made touch and goes. Had about 20 hrs, rain and 15 kts crosswind. On one of the T/Gs almost made an overrun into a fence. Sunk into a pool of mud - no room for stopping - so got airboune with about 45 kts, speed building up very slowly in ground effect and 10 cm over the 2 meters fence!

Runway in a golf course in Pennsylvania, 400m, that was the easy part. It was 7m wide,with a crosswind. I got a warrior in on the second attempt

There is an Instructor at OATS who landed a Jet in a coal yard next to Paddington Station then flew the Atlantic.

It was St Pancras actually!! Tom L-T gave us an interesting chat at Cranwell about that experience and told us that, whilst he was on his way from the Post Office tower, someone had entered his scramble-prepp'd cockpit and put the flaps up!! Made the departure very interesting!

The worst runway I've encountered was Spanhoe's alleged 700 metres in a Robin with poor brakes!

Beagal it was not a DR400 was it as i at one time had a drum brake DR400 based on a 370m farm strip and if you got it right you did not touch the brakes.

About 12 metres, night, unlit.

Helicopters. You know it makes sense.

:)

Not sure what type of Robin it was! It had a 180 BHP engine but had very poor forward visibility over the nose (making an accurate flare difficult), although quite good to the sides. It also had an odd fuel selection system; you had to move the selector through 'OFF' every time you went from L to R tank.

Barton, RWY 32, 396 metres, C150
Forgot to say that its a grass
runway and the pylons are not to
far away
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A BIT EXTRA FOR MUM.

[This message has been edited by EGCC4284 (edited 17 April 2001).]

400m from beginning of upslope to base of trees at the other end, uneven, lumpy stubble, with ten skydivers aboard.

Approach equally exciting with a telephone wire 50yds short of the strip.

The CAA didn't like it and we moved to a 600m strip which had powerelines across it half way down. Couldn't turn the a/c around without the tail going into the crop.

Bloody good fun though!

Fixed Wing - About 45m long

F*ck me it was wide though...

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...proceeding below Decision Height with CAUTION...

2000ft (600m). In a C130 at up to 60 tonnes. Many, many times.....!

Meppershall in a Pa28 200r. Rwy length 317 metres, grass about 3 inches long and a line of conifers standing about 35-40 ft tall at the end. OK. it was just me on board in a 200hp arrow but bloody tight none the less!
Failing that, rwy 31/13 at shoreham.

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Climb Aboard, lets have some fun.

Been into a couple of VERY short grasss strips, but I can't recall their length.

You get to as stage on the take-off when you have to decide on going under or over the telephone wires when you get airborne..........of course you go over, but sometimes you are holding on, white knuckles, 55kts, BEGGING it to climb just a little more.....aaaaaaagggggghhhhhh........right, lets have another go!

EGCC, you should try it in the Grob,
All the Barton RWY's are to short for the Grob,

But I loved flying there.

South Sudan in a Twin Otter. 200m at max all up, in and out. Outside air temp about 43 Celsius with a mined clearway/stopway...Yikes!!

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"Forklift 10 checks West 1.....Have the beers ready!"

No-one has laughed at my joke yet http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/frown.gif

I laughed AB, nice one :) :) :)

[This message has been edited by GreasedItOn! (edited 16 April 2001).]

About 25 meters on the 11th green at Sandown golf club on climb out from IOW airport in a stol 172, 3 pax and no bloody engine!

Aftermath was peed off golf club secretary, A/C on the back of a lorry and a lot of paperwork and a lovely write up in AAIB publication. :rolleyes:

But I agree, NOTHING is as blood chilling as Netherthorpe!

[This message has been edited by Snap (edited 16 April 2001).]

I believe it to be about 25ft! Must admit the plane was never flown again

Whiterashes in Aberdeenshire is interesting. Two quite long grass strips, unfortunately there currently happens to be a marsh at their intersection across which it is inadviseable to even taxi an aircraft.

So, didn't pace it out but the bit I took off from (the intersection to the hangar) can't be more than about 380m with a line of short trees straight after it. I reckon I cleared 'em by about 20 feet.

500m, gravel at Hr'sey (BIHY). It´s an island north of Iceland. It´s not so much the runway length, but the time it took to get there over the open sea in a C-150.

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Nothing to see here, just making use of the internet!

AffirmBrest, sounds like one of my ILS's. :)

Touch and Go,

I learnt at Barton in the Grobs too. Did you ever go to Blackpool and see how far along the runway you floated in ground effect?

If you can land on 09N at Barton swamp,
then you can land anywere.

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A BIT EXTRA FOR MUM.

Pandora...yes the Grob floated at bit,you should fly it in a country were the temp is 40+, thermals throw you all over the place and it floats for ever.

EGCC, yes your right, if you can land on the numbers at Barton everytime you can get into any field.

Barton was a great place to start my aviation career.

The "Jet" at St Pancras just happened to be an early mark of Harrier, which if memory serves then flew across the Atlantic refuelled on the way.

My own shortest runway ? Half the length of the lawn outside Panorama House, Bulli Pass ( between Sydney and Woolongong ), while dropping in there for lunch.

Oops - should have said, in an R22 - MUCH more fun than f/w, tried both, know which I prefer.

[This message has been edited by The Nr Fairy (edited 18 April 2001).]

BEagal it sounds like it was a HR100 or an agalon both metal and both not the best for short strips , all the best robins are made out of trees and have bent wings.

Short runways I have used:
Halwell in Devon, grass, 460m and very rough
Hougham near Newark, grass, 402m
Roddige near Lichfield, 390m
Lundy Island, never measured length, but VERY ROUGH.
ps I am based at Netherthorpe which has the shortest licensed runway in the UK, so no problems with a Jodel.
Unfortunately, Farm strip flying is seriously reduced by the foot & mouth disease.

cov used to have a quite a short grass strip, aligned with 23/05 main, 515mtrs and really usefull for training, and i for one still mourn it's loss.grass just seems a more natural surface for light acft to operate off. little snoring(quality name) is also pretty short if i remember rightly.

hey EGCC et al from barton who are you guys cos im another 09N'er as well

Barton rwy 32 is great fun when its open, especially trying to miss the lamp posts on final approach.

Anybody know when they are going to open 27/09 main again?

ST, I think Coventry have re-instated the grass runway. I seem to remember being offered it when I flew a taildragger in there last year.

I have a share in GBBKY. C150.

[This message has been edited by EGCC4284 (edited 19 April 2001).]