FAA Runway Grade Checker
Interactive runway surface, longitudinal grade, transverse slope, drainage, and line-of-sight review.
Upload runway elevation CSV
Accepted formats
Wide grid: one station per row with headers such as offset_-75, offset_0, and offset_75.
Long survey: columns named station_ft, offset_ft, and elevation_ft.
Station intervals and lateral offsets may vary. The runway pavement limits must be covered by the uploaded offsets.
Analysis settings
Advanced tolerances and screening controls
Compliance summary
Input surface summary
Centerline profile
Centerline elevation profile
Segment longitudinal grades
Local grade-change screening
This is a sampled-profile screening check. Exact vertical-curve length and PVI spacing require explicit design geometry.
Selected transverse profile
Signed transverse slope heatmap
Interactive runway elevation surface
Critical sampled line-of-sight pair
Longitudinal segment checks
Transverse station checks
FAA criteria and calculation basis
Segment longitudinal grade
AAC A and B: maximum longitudinal grade is 2.0 percent. AAC C, D, and E: maximum is 1.5 percent, reduced to 0.8 percent within the lesser of the first or last quarter of runway length or 2,500 ft.
Transverse slope
AAC A and B: 1.0 to 2.0 percent. AAC C, D, and E: 1.0 to 1.5 percent. The standard configuration is an equal, constant center crown, with specified alternate configurations permitted by the AC.
Runway line of sight
The sampled profile verifies that the runway surface does not obstruct the line between points 5 ft above centerline. The required viewing distance depends on whether a full parallel taxiway is available.
Design geometry limitation
Sampled elevations do not uniquely define tangent PVIs, PVCs, PVTs, or theoretical vertical-curve lengths. Those checks are therefore reported as not evaluated instead of being inferred from noisy survey data.