Questions from the Cockpit: U know it now

Elijia, a student pilot in Florida, writes: I’m confused about how private airports are shown on sectional charts. Most of them just show a circle with the letter R inside — why not the more logical P for private? And others have the more standard symbol, but then after the name of the airport it says (Pvt).

Starting with the circle vs. the airport logo: It depends on how nice the private airport is.

Man, I can’t believe I just wrote that. All private airports are nice, I mean, what pilot wouldn’t want one? Let me back up and reset…

Starting with the circle vs. the airport logo: The primary airport symbol — the one with the solid circle showing the runway(s) inside it — is for airports with at least one paved runway that is equal to or greater than 1,500 feet long.

At least until you get up to airports with a runway that’s greater than 8,069 feet long, where the symbol changes.

Why that bizarre number? It has to do with the scale of the old paper sectional charts and the size of the airport symbol on the charts. The symbol not only shows the number and orientation of the runways, it also shows their relative lengths — to scale — and any runway longer than 8,069 feet simply doesn’t fit inside the circle in the chart.

If that seems like bad planning to you, recall that the charting norms were established back at the dawn of aviation, before really long runways were needed.

Meanwhile, the simple “hollow” circle symbol is for both airports whose primary runway is less than 1,500 feet and for airports without hard-surface runways.

And just to keep the chart less cluttered, if it’s a private airport, a code letter is placed inside the circle symbol. This also helps us “tune out” those airports quickly when flight planning.

As not too many people can afford — or need — a paved runway more than a quarter mile long, we most often see the simple circle icon for private airports.

But there are, as you noted, plenty of exceptions to the rule and any private airport with a long enough paved runway gets the status of the primary marker.

But then, of course, it has to be shown as a private field somewhere, and the logo doesn’t have room for that, hence the “Pvt” designation after the airport’s name.

Many of these larger private airports are residential airparks, where a community of aviators pool their resources to build and maintain a “nicer” runway than the typical back-yard private strip.

Is that why an R instead of a P?

No, the R doesn’t stand for Residential, it stands for Restricted, as there are restrictions on the airport’s use.

Some restricted/private airports are there for the sole use of the owner. Others, for a group. So the R is more about the nature of the use, than ownership status.

And, in fact, there are some privately owned airports that are open for public business — the privately owned-public use airports. Of course, those will just show up on the chart like any other public airport.

My point is just that the R is a more accurate choice over the P, as a private owner may put as few — or as many — restrictions on its use as he or she sees fit.

And actually, there are plenty of private/restricted airports that are welcoming. You just need to get in touch with them in advance to get the information on their rules of use.

All of that being said then, why did the chart folks go back to “(Pvt.)” after the airport name at larger private/restricted airports, instead of labeling them “(Res.)” to match?

I’ve got no clue, sorry. It’s just one of many inconsistencies in our little aviation universe.

Now, if you look around the chart some, you’ll see a few other small “letter” airports. “H” is for Heliport. “F” is for Flight Park (ultra-light field). “U” is for “Unverified,” an airport that the charting people can’t get any current information on.

So why chart private airports at all?

For the same reason that we chart rivers, roads, and railroad tracks, along with stadiums, arenas, and all the rest. They have landmark value. That and, of course, in an emergency, any airplane is welcome at any private airport — even the most restricted ones.

But as an unintended side effect, the charting of private airports also makes the Sectional Chart much more entertaining, because, I gotta say, private airports have the most interesting names.

Sometimes the names are aviator cool like Lonehawk in Montana or Eagle’s Lair in New Jersey. Sometimes the names are poetic like Sojourner Field in Indiana, or Windswept in New Hampshire.

Some — perhaps unintentionally — feature amusing word combinations like Judy Strip in North Dakota or Musselman Airstrip in Utah. And sometimes they are just pure fun like Chickville in New Hampshire and Slobovia Outernational in Mississippi.

And of course — in a class of its own — there’s, no kidding, Happy Butt in Colorado.