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Runway Setback

Eddie Foy

MEMBER
South Florida
Hypothetical situation. 2400 ft grass runway in an airpark. Said airpark has about 19 1.3 acre lots lining the runway on both sides. The lot sizes are 300 deep by 200 wide. What do you think is a safe setback from the runway for buildings.
 
My hanger is 90’ from the (undefined) edge of the 32’ runway and the house will be 65-70 but we’re about all that come and go regularly and we’re obviously safer since Eaton only comes around in his whirligig. To me it depends on where the structures are in relation to touchdown, transition and roll out. I want plenty of room in the transition/GL zone... also remember structures can dramatically effect cross winds.

For a community strip I would think 125-150 that way you still have 100-ish with a plane on the ramp.
 
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I live in an air park and our runway setbacks are somewhat large at 175 feet from the runway center line. But our lots are approximately double the size that the OP mentioned. I really wouldn't like less that 100 feet from the center line. As mentioned above, structures and trees do affect crosswinds even with our setbacks. Look around at Google Earth and use the measure tool to measure setbacks at some air parks. The closest I see in our area is one with one building approximately 90 feet from the runway center line. All the others are further away.
 
If you plan to tie down planes between building and runway consider that in the equation.
DENNY
 
No one answer fits all areas. The houses around my neighborhood are set into trees. My house is set closer to the runway than most but there's plenty of room to sit around the fire pit in the yard and watch airplanes come and go. I wouldn't want to be closer but that has nothing do with safety from airplanes.
 
FAA has standards for max heights at given distances from a runway. To get a building permit for our house I had to jump through that hoop, since our property borders the County airport. I don't have a source for that info at my fingertips, but if you look it up it might give some useful insight to consider.
 
The FAA standard for the county airport I’m at is no structures 250 ft from the runway centerline, after 250 ft you can have a 1 ft rise in building height for every 10 ft set further back from the centerline. So you need to be 350 ft away from the centerline to have a 10 ft tall building. I’m building a covered loading area for ag planes and it’s been an interesting exercise of combining government standards and geometry.

Our grass strip has trees 50 ft off centerline on both ends which feels tight initially, but it opens up to the pasture after 100 yds. Hangar is 150 ft off the runway, I don’t know that you could screw up a landing bad enough to worry about hitting it.
 
The FAA standard for the county airport I’m at is no structures 250 ft from the runway centerline, after 250 ft you can have a 1 ft rise in building height for every 10 ft set further back from the centerline. So you need to be 350 ft away from the centerline to have a 10 ft tall building......

Concrete WA 3W5 has some newish hangars that were built with the roof pitching toward the runway & the doors facing away. Turns out that was done to meet the setback slope (for lack of a better term).
 
A nearby residential airpark fell apart (seemingly) over a long drawn out contentious serious of lawsuits between the owner and a resident, who apparently built too close to the center line. Causing the owner, to meet the FAA regs I suppose, to officially shorten the runway and I think maybe lose some building sites. It is not clear why the owner didn't raise hell as soon as the footings were dug and he realized the situation. Both parties are nice guys and great pilots, it was sad to see the bitterness that resulted over this, so it's worth getting right the first time.
 
I THINK this gives most of the information you are looking for. https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-i...=text&node=14:2.0.1.2.9&idno=14#se14.2.77_117

It is CFR 14 ... PART 77—SAFE, EFFICIENT USE, AND PRESERVATION OF THE NAVIGABLE AIRSPACE

One of the most interesting airspace cases I know of involves Boston Logan. The bay to the south is frequently occupied by ocean going ships. The tower is (was ... maybe still is ... it was a long time ago) equipped with a camera on a tower that could be used to gauge if the ship going past penetrated the airspace, thus affecting approaches to the airport.

Wayne
 
Perhaps this question should be asked of an insurance agent. Our private aviation community grew from a farmer's field with little forethought or planning. By the time the homeowner's association (lot owner's) began to worry about liability and insurance it was too late. Buildings had been erected, lots had been surveyed, and the grass runway was established. We have a 100 foot setback from the middle of the runway. The runway is tapered and has a dogleg. Nothing about it was attractive to an insurance company and no agent that was contacted could find insurance for us. We are depending on our State's Recreational Use Act to give us liability protection. All the agents contacted said we should have contacted them before any surveys or construction was started. So we live with what we have.
 
I THINK this gives most of the information you are looking for. https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-i...=text&node=14:2.0.1.2.9&idno=14#se14.2.77_117

It is CFR 14 ... PART 77—SAFE, EFFICIENT USE, AND PRESERVATION OF THE NAVIGABLE AIRSPACE

One of the most interesting airspace cases I know of involves Boston Logan. The bay to the south is frequently occupied by ocean going ships. The tower is (was ... maybe still is ... it was a long time ago) equipped with a camera on a tower that could be used to gauge if the ship going past penetrated the airspace, thus affecting approaches to the airport.

Wayne
Those obstruction regs are for FAA funded airports and focus on protecting instrument approaches.
 
And the only part that I see in the regs that might apply talks about a slope of 20 to 1 for all utility and visual runways. At that rate a 20 foot tall building would need to be 400 feet from the runway. Ain't gonna happen...
 
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Hypothetical situation. 2400 ft grass runway in an airpark. Said airpark has about 19 1.3 acre lots lining the runway on both sides. The lot sizes are 300 deep by 200 wide. What do you think is a safe setback from the runway for buildings.
As far back as possible, leaving enough room on the back side of the buildings for comfortable access. Most of your visitors will have airplanes, they will need a safe place to park. Also buildings do create turbulence when there is a cross wind. For that reason alone, they should be as far back as possible.

An arrogant fellow built a hangar near here at the minimum legal setback from the runway because he wanted to minimize his pavement cost for the taxiway. For ever afterward there has been unwanted turbulence at that point of the runway with a cross wind when before there was none. That point of the runway was where a plane would normally be too slow to fly and too fast not to be effected by the wind.
 
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