RSA - Runway Safety Area

Old Braniff captain drawled "ya fly one ya fly em all"

Never heard thet he went over to KLM though.

Sorry but can't help but post this. Apologies for sideways thread drift. Ok, I'm not really sorry.

Did my BFR yesterday.

On landing, CFI said "put it down on the 1000' marker."

I immediately thought of this thread and said "what do you think I am, a jet pilot?"

I am somewhat embarrassed to say that in my 6 years and 1300 hours of flying, I have never once been asked or tried to do this...hit the 1000' marker. Never. Not once.

Touched down dead center of the marks!!

Lucky? No way!!

It was tough with Master Yoda watching over my every move.

My Jedi Starfighter is now on order. I'll show you guys.

Now that we have established your superiority, why not use some of it to explain something in a useful way.

Mike C.

Or why runway 32 gets one and runway 14 doesn't, yet runway 14's LDA is reduced.

Still waiting for the explanation of that...

Mike C.

There is a study, a master plan, for KSBS that I found:

http://www.armstrongconsultants.com/pla ... ry_001.pdf

http://www.armstrongconsultants.com/pla ... ts_000.pdf

http://www.armstrongconsultants.com/pla ... eq_001.pdf

http://www.armstrongconsultants.com/pla ... ed_000.pdf

http://www.armstrongconsultants.com/pla ... al_000.pdf

In chapter 1:

"Rocky Mountain Airways began serving the area in 1964, using DeHavilland Twin Otter aircraft and later using DevHavilland Dash 7 aircraft in 1979. Commercial air service continued to increase and in 1993, the City constructed a terminal building. Commercial services was discontinued in 1995."

"Runway safety and object free areas are currently in compliance with applicable ARC AIII standards. The runway safety area (RSA) has a width of 300 feet and extends 600 feet beyond the runway end. The runway object free area has a width of 800 feet and extends 600 feet beyond the runway end. The threshold of Runway 32 has been displaced 600 feet and through the use of declared distances, a 300 foot runway safety area is now available, as well as a clear runway object free area. Declared distances are means of obtaining a standard safety area by reducing the usable runway length."

So it appears the displaced threshold on runway 32 is due to the cliff about 200 ft from the end, they want the threshold far enough away from that to have the RSA. They arbitrarily declared runway 14 distances to be shorter simply to create space at the far end to have space beyond the runway. This appears to have been due to commercial service which ended in 1995. Not clear the displaced threshold and declared distances would exist if not for commercial service.

There's no terrain or obstruction reason for the displaced threshold or the declared short runway distances.

The options to increase the runway lengths in chapter 4 are interesting.

Mike C.

Or why runway 32 gets one and runway 14 doesn't, yet runway 14's LDA is reduced.

Still waiting for the explanation of that...

Mike C.

No, but once an resort area airport is Part 139 qualified the town is reluctant to give it up in case an airline wants to begin service.

So to use marginal pilots, we are going to shorten the runway length they can use?

Odd logic that.

I suspect the reason stated above is made up and doesn't actually relate to the true thinking here. That is, I doubt someone said "let's define more safe area so clumsy pilots won't get fired". If a pilot makes use of a safe area, they are probably getting fired anyway.

BTW, where are these commercial pilots who don't make the runway? That seems to be a very small minority. Are we sure the regulations are designed around that group?

Mike C.

Now that we have established your superiority, why not use some of it to explain something in a useful way.

Mike C.

The center of the touch down marks at San Marteen are 1500 ft from the start of pavement.

Based on the rubber pattern, most touch down past the threshold (500 ft from pavement start), but not everyone, obviously.

Mike C.

After reading about this a while, it appears the KSBS displaced threshold on runway 32 and the declared landing distance on runway 14 are entirely artifacts of the runway safe area requirement flowing down from commercial operations. There's no terrain or obstacle which requires it.

Outside of the RSA commercial requirements, runway 32 would not have a displaced threshold and runway 14 would have full length LDA. If that was the case, runway 32 touch down marker would be 1020 ft from runway end, not 1620 ft as it is now. That would give both runways 4452 ft LDA, or about 3432 ft from start of touch down marker to end of runway.

This further supports using some of the runway surface prior to the present touch down marker on runway 32.

Mike C.

The Three most Useless things to a Pilot:

• Fuel on the Ground

• Runway behind you

• Sky above you