TURBINE PILOT MENTOR MATTERS Runway declared distances Why the pavement length isn’t always all there is to consider WHEN ANY HAZARD to aircraft exists within the 1,000-foot runway surface area (RSA), the RSA must be shifted back to encompass part of the runway. This runway portion becomes unusable for some performance calculations, causing declared distances to be less than the physical length of the runway. T–10 | AOPA PILOT November 2013