Runway Weight Bearing Capacity (2024 thread)

[Daniel N 69]

I saw a thread from 11 yrs ago with this almost same question and i never really saw an answer just guesses nothing substantial. then 2-3 posts in it turned into political BS nothing to do with the question and went downhill from there. I figured i would start a new one in case anyone else has the same question it will have a more recent update.

I was in San Diego and stopped by one of the small Ga airports there to watch planes for a few minutes to kill time. I happen to bump into the Airport Manager. An older Gent, like myself, I thought he defiantly would know. I asked him the chart supplement question that has been bugging me for months because i can not find the answer. I have asked my part 61 flight school and searched google with no luck.

Here is the question: I told him there is an airport that has weight bearing capacity of S-20 but if you go to google maps and look at said airport it shows a Gulfstream G550 on the ramp. that thing weighs more than 20K if he would explain it to me how that pane is at that airport so it will help in my training? He said it because the G550 has 2 tyres per axle on the mains so the weight is distributed over more tyres. in this case 4 instead of 2.

 

[RussR]

I don't actually see a question in your post, but the airport manager gave the correct answer. S-20 is for single wheel landing gear. The more wheels you have, the more it spreads out the weight, so the more the plane can weigh. I believe the Chart Supplement lists the different wheel configurations, likely in the AFD legend.

 

[Daniel N 69]

I don't actually see a question in your post, but the airport manager gave the correct answer. S-20 is for single wheel landing gear. The more wheels you have, the more it spreads out the weight, so the more the plane can weigh. I believe the Chart Supplement lists the different wheel configurations, likely in the AFD legend.

Thanks for the answer. I fixed my post to point out the question.

 

[RussR]

Now that I'm at my computer, I found the reference, it is indeed in the AFD legend.



And here's how it looks in the AFD entry:



Typically this is not a big deal for most GA aircraft. OKC, for example, can support 120,000 pound single-wheel aircraft. That's a lot, and I'd be interested if there actually are any single-wheel landing gear aircraft that weigh that much. The 14,000 pound King Air I fly for work is a D (double) style landing gear, and OKC will support up to 250,000 pounds on that style landing gear. But if you start flying your personal 747 around then you would definitely be checking this before going somewhere. Note, though, in the paragraph preceding the chart, this weight is not necessarily a limitation per se.

But here's a much smaller airport, one that actually has the weight bearing information (many small airports do not):



Note that my 14,000 pound D-landing gear King Air would exceed the stated 12,500 value. So what I should do before landing here would be to contact the airport manager - it may be okay. Of course, at 2900 feet long, I'm not likely flying my King Air in there anyway, but that's beside the point.