Tire Wear Caused by Runway

iflyvfr

iflyvfr

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Greg
An airport I frequent was resurfaced last fall with a granite topcoat. Looks great and I hear it wears well. . .at the expense of our tires. Someone based on the field posted a notice that if a pilot could conclusively link excessive tire wear to their new runway, he would pay for new tires.

I took my pants off to air up my tires and ensure my brakes weren't sticking and I noticed this. A friend checked his tires, and they exhibited the same characteristic. After we landed at this same airport Sunday afternoon and chatted with some of the locals, one of the guys walked up and down the open T's and said everyone had the same issue on their tires, including the snow plow. He said it looked like cat scratches and with 4 cats at home, I have to agree.

I've never heard of this, have you? catscratch.Tires.jpg The airport has asked the company to come back out and add some kind of sand-based topcoat. Any experience suggestions? Although this particular tire is getting replaced at annual, I'm not keen on replacing tires every 100 landings.
 
I saw that kind of tire wear in the late 1970's at Queen City Airport in Allentown, PA. The runway was coated with a "slurry seal"and fine stone chips........very abrasive for a while.

Bob
 
I have seen patterns like that when landing on ice runways....and gravel runways.


And wondering why you have to air up the tires while not wearing pants....:lol::lol:
 
Which airport is this? I'd really like to know so I can stay the heck away! I like my tires just fine thank you.
 
Zeldman said:
And wondering why you have to air up the tires while not wearing pants....:lol::lol:
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Yeah, the cops show up every time I work on my car or plane without pants. The parents claim it is “for the children.”
 
And Rolla Downtown (not Rolla/Vichy) used a crushed GLASS mixture.
 
biplanebob said:
I saw that kind of tire wear in the late 1970's at Queen City Airport in Allentown, PA. The runway was coated with a "slurry seal"and fine stone chips........very abrasive for a while.

Bob
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I think someone mentioned 'slurry seal' while we were talking about it...
 
FastEddieB said:
I have to ask...

...regardless of runway surface, does that wear pattern look like the tire might have been overinflated?
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If anything my tires were under-inflated for awhile. I aired them up immediately after removing my pants, err the wheelpants. And the fact everyone's tires exhibit the same wear.
 
CarbonFlyer said:
That must be Delaware Municipal. KDLZ.
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Negative, nearly a straight line opposite direction. 68 nauticals on a 203 heading to KHOC. The surface of the runway is very rough. My home drone redid the runway this past fall but I haven't had the opportunity to walk it or get down and feel it like at HOC so I cannot compare. They say this stuff will never fade either, whatever it is.
 
No pants on this one.

915295ef53c9e712934aec6b28ed96a9.jpg


The plane! Look at the plane!
 
Why are you landing on runways....rookie ;)


I would also ask if the tire is over inflated.
 
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I dunno; sort of sultry, in a NJ kind of way . . .
 
Tom-D said:
not a sky wagon.. 170-B windows wrong shape, fuel vent wrong for 180/185
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Thanks for the correction! My only way to tell them apart from this angle is how "beefy" they are.
 
iflyvfr said:
I think someone mentioned 'slurry seal' while we were talking about it...
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Is it the tar and chip seal stuff that every redneck county/township road dept puts on the roads down this way acting like it's a repave? (I live by ILN/I66). If so, that's definitely not granite. Would be VERY expensive to source granite locally for that kind of use, because granite doesn't live here at the local stone quarries. Usually just use crushed limestone for that. And yes, it chews up car tires fast too when they screw our roads with it.
 
Todd82 said:
Is it the tar and chip seal stuff that every redneck county/township road dept puts on the roads down this way acting like it's a repave? (I live by ILN/I66). If so, that's definitely not granite. Would be VERY expensive to source granite locally for that kind of use, because granite doesn't live here at the local stone quarries. Usually just use crushed limestone for that. And yes, it chews up car tires fast too when they screw our roads with it.
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I'm out of town but they definitely called it some kind of granite application. I like the term 'glassphalt' used above. My tires were both under and correctly inflated but keep in mind it wasn't just MY tires that exhibited this, it was every plane that the one fella looked at (8 - 10). So under or over-inflated, it's def an issue. I'm surprised that something totally unexpected like this shows up but I guess I shouldn't be.
 
Is it possible there was something in your wheel pants? I had similar marks from a loose screw. I don't understand how the pavement could made grooves like that while the tires are rotating.
 
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