3 F R To properly plan for the future of Coolidge facilities will be evaluated in Chapter Four Municipal Airport, it is necessary to trans- to determine the most cost-effective and late forecast aviation demand into the efficient means for implementation. specific types and quantities of facilities that can adequately serve this identified demand. This chapter uses the results of the PLANNING HORIZONS forecasts conducted in Chapter Two, as well as established planning criteria, to The cost-effective, efficient, and orderly determine the airside (i.e., runways, development of an airport should rely more taxiways, navigational aids, marking and upon actual demand at an airport than on a lighting) and landside (i.e., terminal build- time-based forecast figure. In order to ing, hangars, aircraft parking apron, and develop a Master Plan that is demand-based automobile parking) facility requirements. rather than time-based, a series of planning horizon milestones have been established The objective of this effort is to identify, in for Coolidge Municipal Airport that take general terms, the adequacy of the existing into consideration the reasonable range of airport facilities, outline what new facilities aviation demand projections prepared in the may be needed, and when these may be previous chapter. needed to accommodate forecast demands. Having established these facility require- ments, alternatives for providing these 3-1 It is important to consider that the ac- airport to develop facilities according tual activity at the airport may be to need generated by actual demand higher or lower than projected activity levels. The demand-based schedule levels. By planning according to activ- provides flexibility in development, as ity milestones, the resulting plan can development schedules can be slowed accommodate unexpected shifts, or or expedited according to actual de- changes, in the area’s aviation de- mand at any given time during the mand. It is important that the plan planning period. The resulting plan accommodate these changes so that provides airport officials with a finan- airport staff can respond to unex- cially responsible and need-based pro- pected changes in a timely fashion. gram. Table 3A presents the plan- These milestones provide flexibility, ning horizon milestones for each air- while potentially extending this plan’s craft activity category. The planning useful life if aviation trends slow over milestones of short, intermediate, and time. long term generally correlate to the five, ten, and 20-year periods used in The most important reason for utiliz- the previous chapter. ing milestones is that they allow the TABLE 3A Planning Horizon Activity Levels Coolidge Municipal Airport 2009 Short Term Intermediate Term Long Term Itinerant Operations General Aviation 6,200 7,500 8,900 12,500 Military 100 100 100 100 Total Itinerant 6,300 7,600 9,000 12,600 Local Operations General Aviation 14,500 16,800 19,900 25,300 Total Local 14,500 16,800 19,900 25,300 TOTAL OPERATIONS 20,800 24,400 28,900 37,900 TOTAL BASED AIRCRAFT 38 50 65 90 AIRFIELD fine the design parameters for the air- PLANNING CRITERIA port. The critical design aircraft is de- fined as the most demanding category The selection of appropriate Federal of aircraft, or family of aircraft, which Aviation Administration (FAA) design conducts at least 500 operations per standards for the development and lo- year at the airport. Planning for fu- cation of airport facilities is based ture aircraft use is of particular im- primarily upon the characteristics of portance since design standards are the aircraft which are currently using used to plan many airside and land- or are expected to use the airport. The side components. These future stan- critical design aircraft is used to de- dards must be considered now to en- 3-2 sure that short term development does Design, an aircraft’s approach catego- not preclude the long range potential ry is based upon 1.3 times its stall needs of the airport. speed in landing configuration at that aircraft’s maximum certificated The FAA has established a coding sys- weight. The five approach categories tem to relate airport design criteria to used in airport planning are as fol- the operational and physical characte- lows: ristics of aircraft expected to use the airport. This airport reference code Category A: Speed less than 91 knots. (ARC) has two components. The first Category B: Speed 91 knots or more, component, depicted by a letter, is the but less than 121 knots. aircraft approach category and relates Category C: Speed 121 knots or more, to aircraft approach speed (operational but less than 141 knots. characteristic); the second component, Category D: Speed 141 knots or more, depicted by a Roman numeral, is the but less than 166 knots. airplane design group and relates to Category E: Speed greater than 166 aircraft wingspan and tail height knots. (physical characteristics). Generally, aircraft approach speed applies to The airplane design group (ADG) is runways and runway-related facilities, based upon either the aircraft’s while aircraft wingspan and tail wingspan or tail height, whichever is height primarily relates to separation greater. For example, an aircraft may criteria involving taxiways, taxilanes, fall in ADG II for wingspan at 70 feet, and landside facilities. Exhibit 3A but ADG III for tail height at 33 feet. summarizes representative aircraft by This aircraft would be classified under ARC. ADG III. Table 3B describes the six ADGs used in airport planning. According to FAA Advisory Circular (AC) 150/5300-13, Change 14, Airport TABLE 3B Airplane Design Groups Airplane Design Group Tail Height (feet) Wingspan (feet) I Less than 20 Less than 49 II Greater than 20, but less than30 Greater than 49 but less than 79 III Greater than 30 but less than 45 Greater than 79 but less than 118 IV Greater than 45 but less than 60 Greater than 118 but less than 171 V Greater than 60 but less than 66 Greater than 171 but less than 214 VI Greater than 66 but less than 80 Greater than 214 but less than 262 Source: FAA AC 150/5300-13, Change 14, Airport Design The FAA recommends designing air- aircraft currently operating at the air- port functional elements to meet the port are small single engine aircraft requirements for the most demanding weighing less than 12,500 pounds. ARC for that airport. The majority of The airport also has recorded a num- 3-3 ber of turboprop and jet aircraft opera- utilized by helicopters, they are not tions to include the King Air 100 and included in this determination as they Cessna Citation family. In addition, are not assigned an ARC. larger aircraft to include the Lockheed C-130 utilize the airport on a regular There are currently 38 based aircraft basis in association with aviation ac- at Coolidge Municipal Airport. The tivities conducted by International Air majority of these are single engine pis- Response, a specialty business opera- ton-powered aircraft which fall within tor located at Coolidge Municipal Air- approach category A and ADG I. port. There are eight turboprop aircraft which are also based at the airport. In order to determine airfield design They include a Cessna 210, King Air requirements, the critical aircraft and 100, TBM 700, and five Lockheed C- critical ARC should first be deter- 130s. These aircraft range from ARC mined, and then appropriate airport A-I through C-IV. In addition, four design criteria can be applied. This jets are based at the airport to include process begins with a review of air- a Cessna 525, L-29, A-37, and Mig 17. craft currently using the airport and These aircraft belong in ARCs B-II, B- those expected to use the airport I, B-I, and C-I, respectively. Before through the long term planning pe- making a final determination of the riod. critical aircraft family, an examination of the transient turboprop and jet air- craft using the airport should also be CRITICAL AIRCRAFT considered. As previously discussed, the critical A wide range of transient turboprop design aircraft is defined as the most and jet aircraft operate at the airport. demanding category or family of air- In order to discern the number and craft which conducts at least 500 an- type of turboprop and jet operations at nual operations at the airport. In Coolidge Municipal Airport, an analy- some cases, more than one specific sis of instrument flight plan data was make and model of aircraft comprises conducted. Flight plan data was ac- the airport’s critical design aircraft. quired for this study from the sub- For example, one category of aircraft scription service, Airport IQ. The data may be the most critical in terms of available includes documentation of approach speed, while another is most flight plans that are opened or closed critical in terms of wingspan. Smaller on the ground at the airport. Flight general aviation piston-powered air- plans that are opened or closed from craft within approach categories A and the air are not credited to the airport. B and ADG I conduct the majority of Therefore, it is likely that there are operations at Coolidge Municipal Air- more turboprop and jet operations at port. Turboprops and jets with longer the airport that are not captured by wingspans and higher approach this methodology. Additionally, some speeds also utilize the airport, but less turboprops and jets may conduct oper- frequently. While the airport is also ations within the traffic pattern at the 3-4 A-I • Beech Baron 55 C-I, D-I • Beech Bonanza • Cessna 150 • Beech 400 06MP12-3A-8/19/09 • Cessna 172 • Lear 25, 31, 35, 45, • Cessna Citation Mustang 55, 60 • Eclipse 500 • Israeli Westwind • Piper Archer • HS 125-400, 700 • Piper Seneca less than B-I 12,500 lbs.