Farm/Ranch airfield property sizes?

[BlueSky247]

I'm planning to get a few acres before I retire and would really like to get something that could host a modest runway and hangars. My area of the country still has a few decent sized tracts come up from time to time without developer prices.

What's the smallest reasonable acreage I should look for? I'm not planning to bring a citation in, so something to fit a 4,000' strip aligned with prevailing winds should be plenty. 

Without resorting to a freakish long rectangle tract, something like a 40 acre square should work. Right?

Curious to hear what people are able to make work for these planes.

[PeteMc]

An acre is 208+ feet wide.  So let's round up and say that it would take 20 acres.  That leaves 10 acers or 2,080+ ft on each end of the Rwy for your overrun, low approach, etc.  

But once you have the Runway in place, what about the neighbors and the FUTURE neighbors.  Will they have issues with your doing you taking off or coming in for landing over their property.  I wonder if AOPA or anyone else has any guidance on this.  Suppose you could buy the air rights, but if they are smart enough, it could get pricy.

And you want your own Rwy vs being part of an existing fly-in community?

 

ADDED: Just for clarification, we're talking about a proposed 40 acre square, not 40 square acres and not an acre that can have variable dimensions.

 

Edited May 19, 2024 by PeteMc

[Fly Boomer]

39 minutes ago, PeteMc said:

An acre is 208+ feet wide

I hate to always be Mr. Pedantic, but an acre is defined in square feet.  It could be a plot 1 foot wide, and 43,560 feet long.

[skydvrboy]

160 acres is 2640' x 2640' which gives you a diagonal of 3733'.  You;re probably going to need a "freakishly long" rectangular track if you want a 4000'+ runway.  Our land around here is all laid out in 1 mile square sections, so 5280' x 5280' (640 acres).  If you want a 4000' runway, you're going to need at least a 3/4 mile long parcel (actually 3960').  If you plan to keep that to 40 acres it will only be 440' wide.

A square parcel of 40 acres is 1320' x 1320' with a diagonal of 1867', so you'll either need more land or more rectangular land.

A gentleman around here had a 2600' strip on a 10 acre parcel of land.  He basically owned a 100' wide strip a half mile long and then some extra ground for the house and hangar.  I thought about buying it when he passed, but the wife was NOT interested.

If you don't want to own a bunch of land, your best option is going to be buy a parcel with at least as much length as you want your runway.  Then subdivide your runway, hangar, and house area and sell of the rest.

[Fly Boomer]

1 hour ago, BlueSky247 said:

Curious to hear what people are able to make work for these planes.

As @PeteMc points out, your best plan might be an airpark with an adequate hard surface runway.

[BlueSky247]

Airpark would be great but none exist where I live. And I always had the impression those were big dollars…

[Fly Boomer]

42 minutes ago, BlueSky247 said:

Airpark would be great but none exist where I live. And I always had the impression those were big dollars…

I have no idea what undeveloped real estate costs in your neck of the woods, but it's going to take a pretty large chunk of flat land to host a useful runway.  And, especially for a later model Mooney, that runway will probably need to be hard surface.

[PeteMc]

1 hour ago, Fly Boomer said:

I hate to always be Mr. Pedantic, but an acre is defined in square feet.  It could be a plot 1 foot wide, and 43,560 feet long.

Yes, any size and shape is possible... HOWEVER, going on the original post of a "40 acre square" I'll stick with my numbers. 

 

[Z W]

I think about this sometimes.  I think there's a reason most private strips you see are short, like 2,500 feet or less.  The cost to clear, flatten, and properly grade even a half a mile of runway can be huge.  After you spend the money to build it, the job of maintaining it would wear me out pretty quick.  If it's grass you have to mow it.  If you spend what it takes to pave it, you still have to mow around it, paint the markers/numbers, seal it, sweep it.  Fence it to keep the wildlife off.  Lights to land at night.  A fuel tank so you aren't always making short hops for fuel.  Trees grow back, so you have to keep it cleared quite a ways, both on the approach ends and the sides.  You would need a full-time maintenance person or two, unless you just want to spend all your time maintaining your strip instead of flying out of it.  Every foot of runway length makes this problem worse.

Then you've got a strip with no instrument approaches and no weather station.

All of that makes the monthly hangar rent at a nearby municipal FBO seem like a real bargain, even though there are things to dislike about it.  

[skydvrboy]

21 minutes ago, PeteMc said:

Yes, any size and shape is possible... HOWEVER, going on the original post of a "40 acre square" I'll stick with my numbers. 

 

A 40 acre square is 1320' x 1320'.  In your example, you're numbers don't work for a 40 acre square, only for 40 - 1 square acre sections, all stacked in a row.  I'll stick with my numbers. 

[skydvrboy]

23 minutes ago, Z W said:

All of that makes the monthly hangar rent at a nearby municipal FBO seem like a real bargain, even though there are things to dislike about it. 

I think you're overestimating the amount of work involved in maintaining a grass runway, but your conclusion is still spot on.  I pay $110 a month for a hangar with a 12,300' x 150' runway, a 6500' x 100' crosswind runway, and another 3600' x 75' crosswind runway.  That's a real bargain compared to building a runway, hangar, taxiway, and maintaining each, not to mention purchasing all the equipment needed to maintain it.

[Hank]

Where I was based with my C for the first 7 years, the obstructed (paved) runway was 3000 x 75, which is just over 5 acres.

I visit a grass strip at the beach, 3500 x 75, which is exactly 6 acres. The field is L-shaped, with parking on the short leg. The far end is not mowed as often  as the 2500' or so from the end with parking. Parking is at the top of the photo, off to the right (out of view in this photo, behind the pine trees).

So a 7-8 acre L-shaped plot could work.

For square, 3500 x 3500 = 280 acres. Save your money!

 

[BDPetersen]

Funny. I had a 1100’ backyard strip at my home in Minnesota on about 5 acres. A challenge for even a Stinson. Had 4000’ on 320 acres in Iowa. I guess the point is you might get creative and sneak in a 2500 footer in an odd piece of land. 
Adjoining a county airport now, probably the best option.

[Pinecone]

I did my PP on a 2000 foot paved runway.  In a Grumman Tiger.

The same airport has undergone a LOT of expansion, but the long runway is only 3850 at this time.  

[Mcstealth]

Here in the Hill Country of Texas, there are lots of private airstrips on all sorts of land shape and sizes. All I'm saying is, if you want it, build it. 

[laytonl]

Our neighborhood runway (3,000’) costs are around $10,000 per year.  Half of this is mowing labor.  We own the equipment and pay someone to mow.  Other expenses are fertilizer, liability insurance, runway light repair, tree trimming, etc.  Lee

[BlueSky247]

9 hours ago, BDPetersen said:
Adjoining a county airport now, probably the best option.

Hmmm, now that you mention it, I will have to see if my home (county)airport has any kind of provisions for taxiing on from off field. It’s a poor area so the hangar situation onfield is bad.