Warning: 25' wide, 1800' long

On 5 Nov 2006 19:26:57 -0800, "M" wrote:

Andrew Gideon wrote:


Someone on UNICOM described the problem with the runway: it's small, at
25' width and 1800' length.

That's a problem?


The reason is simple. There're plenty of pilots out there, for every
single year since they passed their checkride, they increase their
approach speed by about a knot, "just to be on the safe side". So 10
years later, short field approach speed in a 172 would be done at 70
KIAS.

One of the cues you use for flying a pattern is the aspect ratio of
the runway. At 500 feet, 25 x 1800' runway looks the same as a 50
by 3600' runway at 1000'. (Or something like that; my trig is rusty.)

So, while you're concentrating on the spot on the ground that doesn't
move, your brain is processing other data that says "weird." It can
be distracting.

Don