Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

POH Shortfield vs. Normal Takeoff distances

Asked by: 4177 views General Aviation, Private Pilot, Student Pilot

I'm a student pilot doing ALOT of self study for my private pilot license. I only have about 5 or so hours of flight time. My CFI has begun teaching me about calculating takeoff and landing distances, but when I bought a copy of a POH for the C172R I noticed there's only a chart for Shortfield distances. Is there a way to calculate for normal takeoff configuration? Meaning flaps up, not holding brakes before full power, etc.?

On the POH it says the Shortfield config is 10 degrees flaps, brakes held before going full throttle.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers



  1. Kris Kortokrax on May 08, 2016

    I looked at the POH for a C172N and a C172S. They show the same information as does your C172R POH.

    Since there are no charts for a normal takeoff, We have to resort to common sense.

    In the C172N POH, the most adverse set of conditions would require 2095 feet of runway for ground roll (I use ground roll because if you were going to clear an obstacle, you would need to rely on short field technique). I doubt that you are flying at an airport with a 2100 foot runway. At a 4000′ pressure altitude, you would only require 1400 feet for ground roll.

    Now, we all know that these numbers were developed by a test pilot in a new airplane and that we should not expect to see those numbers, but if we don’t use a short field technique and assumed that the ground roll would double, we would still have sufficient runway length at most airports.

    The longest runway at Midway airport is 6522 feet and Southwest routinely flies 737 jets from the airport (admittedly not at maximum gross weight, but still substantially heavier than a C172).

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.