aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot a ...

, run-up, or runup, is the series of last-minute checks performed by pilots on an aircraft prior to take-off. Run-ups are also sometimes performed by aircraft mechanics, either at a gate in between flights, to test engines and diagnose engine problems.

Overview

The checks performed during a run-up vary with the type of aircraft and (to a lesser extent) with the operating rules under which the flight is being conducted, ''e.g.,''

instrument flight rules In aviation, instrument flight rules (IFR) is one of two sets of regulations governing all aspects of civil aviation aircraft operations; the other is visual flight rules (VFR). The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ''Instrument Fly ...

visual flight rules In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...

, operation as a commercial carrier or private pilot, and so on. The term ''run-up'' alludes to engine checks that involve temporarily advancing the throttles to ensure that engines are capable of producing take-off thrust, although not all run-up procedures involve such checks. A run-up area is a location at an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

where pilots can perform run-up checks of their aircraft. They exist because air blast from engine verification may cause problems for other aircraft or structures, and so a special area where such checks will do no harm is set aside for them. They also allow aircraft to temporarily leave taxiways so that they don't obstruct ground traffic while the run-up is performed. For these reasons, run-up areas are typically located near

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

s. For safety reasons, run-ups on large transport-category aircraft require the utmost coordination between the cockpit crew and the ground crew. On January 16, 2006 an experienced mechanic was inspecting the #2 engine of a Boeing 737-500 during a run-up when he accidentally positioned himself too close to the engine's intake. With the engine running near takeoff thrust, he was ingested into the engine and was killed. In late March 2020, an American Eagle CRJ doing an engine run-up caused a hangar to flip and land on its roof while also damaging two privately owned aircraft at San Luis Obispo airport.

References

Aircraft operations {{Aviation-stub