Longer runway won't be instrument rated until Dec. 7

Warwick Beacon ·

Since Aug. 15 when it was completed, aircraft have been using the extension to Green’s Runway 5 for takeoffs and landings, although the runway is not expected to be rated for instrument use until Dec. 7.

“They haven’t had to divert any flights,” Bill Fisher, spokesman for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, said last week. He said the airport averages 210 operations daily.

Fisher said visual use of the runway, termed VFR (visual flight rule), is only a temporary measure until the Federal Aviation Administration completes instrument certification of the longer runway. He said VFR conditions also apply at night and on a “clear night they can land planes under VFR conditions.”

The fact that the extension, lengthening the runway from 7,150 to 8,700 feet, would be ready before completion of its instrumentation system comes as no surprise. Contractors forecast earlier this summer the extension would be ready by mid- or late August, well in advance of the December date the FAA projected for publication of the runway being instrument rated.

“The airlines are well aware of this,” Fisher said of the VFR limitation.

Typical daytime VFR minimums for most airspace is three statute miles of flight visibility and a distance from clouds of 500 feet below, 1,000 feet above and 2,000 feet horizontally.

“It’s the normal course of business at the airport,” Fisher said when asked the impact of not having the runway open for instrument landings.

The extension only affects the southern end of the runway, meaning instrument landings on the northern end of the runway – Runway 23 – are not affected. Also, what is often referred to as the crosswind runway – Runway 16-34 – is rated for IFR (instrument flying rules), thus giving pilots three out of four Green runways available for instrument use.

In a statement, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said, “Over the next three months the FAA is scheduled to complete instrument approach procedural activities for Runway 5 to ensure they meet all agency safety requirements. The agency also will complete the relocation of a Runway 5 Instrument Landing System (ILS) component needed for safe operations during periods of poor weather and visibility.”

Asked why instrumentation hadn’t been coordinated with completion of the runway extension, Peters explained that in addition to the training of air traffic controllers, relocation of equipment and clearance of obstacles that may be in the new glide path, the FAA has a limited number of aircraft that will perform a series of flight checks to ensure the system is operational.

“We want to make sure it performs as designed,” he said.

Completion of the runway extension is to be celebrated at an event planned for Oct. 2.