Narrowest runway you'd be willing to land on?

I landed the RV-6 on a 40' wide paved strip with sagebrush growing all the way up to the asphalt and hanging over the runway. I figure I had 38' useable. The RV's wingspan is ~24', so I had a roughly 7' margin on each side before catching a wingtip and possibly being pulled off of the runway.

One of my better landings as far as centerline control was concerned.

The backstory is that we (the wife and I) were on a cross country and the weather began to drop unexpectedly in East Texas. I was more comfortable landing on the narrow, unattended strip than I was in pressing on.
 
I've landed on dirt roads, including some on levees with a steep dropoff on each side.
 
7XS0 - polly ranch. Learned to fly with a coworker CFI who lived here. So the plane had to land here every lesson. Probably a good way to learn precise landings. I think the book says 24’ wide.227978D7-7B55-4BD4-98CB-7EEED5A35FCE.jpeg
 
Anymouse said:
How far off the centerline is that flag pole?
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Airnav says 22’ wide, so i was being generous. I haven’t been there in a while so im struggling to remember. Probably 35’ off centerline
 
I landed my Cherokee 180 on a 16ft wide runway. Not sure id go much less.
 
I trained at 0N0 a few years ago. One asphalt runway, it’s 20’ wide, per the A/FD. Great place to learn.
 
I use FD51 in the Florida keys occasionally. 20 wide.


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According to Airnav, I landed on a 30' wide runway on my checkride. I don't know if it was that wide at the time. Didn't seem like it.
 
When I learned at KVKX, the runway was 40ft wide. And that still left plenty of room for a less precise pilot to wiggle around a bit.

I've since flown on runways more like 75-100ft wide after moving, but I think I preferred the skinnier runways. Easier to judge your height and grease landings.
 
An easy way to answer this question is to review your past performance. How far have you ever drifted or consistently drift right or left after landing? Take that figure and add whatever safety margin makes you comfortable...
 
I once landed a 206 on a 200 foot wide runway. 10K long or more. It was the hardest runway I ever landed on. I mean I could not pick a spot to put the plane down. I really had to fight the urge to start the flair at 100AGL. It was harder than any off airport landing I have done.
 
Rankin, 78Y, 25 feet. Landed in Fly Baby, tail wheel plane.
 

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Growing up operating from grass runways, my reflexes are to worry about the edges, not the centerline. I've also found that I don't have any problems getting safely in the middle of a runway. The narrower it is, the closer to the centerline I'll be.
 
iamtheari said:
I landed the Arrow at an airport so bad that the sectional only labels it as OBJECTIONABLE.
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The term "objectionable" has to do with the legal status of the airport. Says nothing about runway length or condition.

-Skip
 
Mountain Meadow Airport (22B) in Connecticut (unfortunately now closed) has a 3400 foot runway that was 40 feet wide at the north end, narrowing to 30 feet about 2/3 the way down towards the south end. From memory, the runway was 1 - 19. My primary CFI dragged me there when I couldn't hold the centerline.

-Skip
 
idahoflier said:
An easy way to answer this question is to review your past performance. How far have you ever drifted or consistently drift right or left after landing? Take that figure and add whatever safety margin makes you comfortable...
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I find it easier to stay in the center of a narrow runway.
 
The narrowest I've landed that I can confirm was 34' wide and I regularly land at one here that is 36'. There's a defunct fly-in restaurant called the Runaway Cafe in Colorado's eastern plains (Joes, CO) which had a nasty grass and broken pavement runway which I think was 20-something but I'm not sure.
 
I don't know how wide this strip, on the narrower side. Used to fly a Cherokee 6 in there 8 times a day. Glacier Point Alaska, just south of Haines and the Davidson glacier.
 

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Narrowest I've landed on is 60'. Seemed a lot narrower... was a lowly student at the time
 
Getonit said:
I don't know how wide this strip, on the narrower side. Used to fly a Cherokee 6 in there 8 times a day. Glacier Point Alaska, just south of Haines and the Davidson glacier.
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I see you worked for Layton Bennett. I have heard some interesting stories about him.

Glacier Point had a nice runway. Not like some of the modified goat trails I flew to up north. But even those are changing. Web cams al over the place to get a good view of the weather before taking off.
 
Zeldman said:
Does it have to be a runway.??
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You couldn't handle this Zeldman, they're making right turns!

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I have landed on sloped runways before, well, they were called beaches.

Yeah, need to land in the other direction on that runway....
 
I landed on paved 30' wide as a student. It was kind of a "see landing on a road wouldn't be that hard" (as long as it is two lanes wide) teaching moment.
 
Not sure how wide the “runway” was but trees on both sides. Fun and close to home.



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timwinters said:
I think it's narrower than that even, 20' I think, but I've only been there a couple of times. Another sidewalk I've landed at is Parr (42i). It's just north of Zanesville, OH and is 26' wide. I had a hangar there 2 summers ago when I was building a couple of Rural Kings in that area. And, it's east/west...always a cross wind...And, 28 is RP just to make it more interesting yet...
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Great airport Tim! Had a 150 with a stripped thru bolt on the case years ago. Bob did a great job splitting the case, sending it to Divco & putting it all back together. If you're not used to it 26' will get your attention, you're looking for a runway but it looks like a driveway. Definitely my narrowest strip ever.
 
Zeldman said:
I see you worked for Layton Bennett. I have heard some interesting stories about him.

Glacier Point had a nice runway. Not like some of the modified goat trails I flew to up north. But even those are changing. Web cams al over the place to get a good view of the weather before taking off.
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Yeah character is a good word. He tried to check me out into Glacier Point. He rolled up on his Harley wearing his David Clarks yelling at somebody with the wires hanging behind him, gets in the plane, still wearing the DC's, doesn't plug them him, and starts yelling sometimes at me, sometimes at whoever. My thoughts were this isn't going to go well, but I needed the job and the experience of flying with him, we went on down there, I did 2 what I thought were acceptable T&G's (yes) and on the third time around he started getting personal and I said F*** it and flew back to Haines. He asked where I was going and I told him I was going back and he could get out if he wanted and then he didn't say anything else. I was then checked out by his son with no issues.

Another time we were all sitting down at Glacier point and one of the Cherokee 6's had a bad plug or something, they removed the plug. Layton started working on something else and a screw dropped off of something and made the perfect entrance right down the plug hole, one bounce right in. All he said was "boy did we F*** up" everybody starts laughing because WE didn't screw up and he was quite for awhile.

Good times.
 
Azpilot you have miles of desert on both sides so wing span is not a problem. Keep the wheels center line like normal. Also that’s a private runway. Get permission to land
 
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