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> I am building our house at an airpark and need to know what is
> generally regarded as the steepest slope piston aircraft can taxi up and
> down unassisted.

Hello Micah,
We have a fairly steep hill on one of our taxiways here on Dogwood Airpark.
No one has had any trouble taxiing aircraft from a 310 to a kitfox. I think
that in addition to the slope angle you need to consider the surface. If
you're taxiing up a steep hill, you're going to be using fairly high power.
If the surface you're on is clean hard-paved surface it would clearly be
less wear and tear on the prop and paint than loose gravel, for instance. As
far as the downhill is concerned, I guess that it's a matter of how much
trust you put in your brakes. I would guess that most airplanes equiped with
brakes would be CAPABLE of taxiing down a slope of perhaps 30 or 40 degrees.
Whether or not you actually want to do this also depends on what's at the
bottom of the hill. If the hill bottoms out and starts to climb again, you
might accept a little more slope than if there were a hard obstacle at the
bottom. If you like I could measure the actual slope of our hill just to
give you an idea of what other airparks have found acceptable.

At which airpark are you building your house? You'll probably discover what
we did; once you get used to having a runway in your back yard, you'd rather
give up indoor plumbing than to give up the runway! Good luck with the
house.

Bill & Sue Harrelson
harrelson@erols.com
N5ZQ

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