Wind energy accounted for 5.6 % of all electricity generation in the United States in 2016. Much of this development has occurred in rural locations, where open spaces favorable for harnessing wind also serve general aviation airports. As such, nearly 40 % of all United States wind turbines exist within 10 km of a small airport. Wind turbines generate electricity by extracting momentum from the atmosphere, creating downwind wakes characterized by wind-speed deficits and increased turbulence. Recently, the concern that turbine wakes pose hazards for small aircraft has been used to limit wind-farm development. Herein, we assess roll hazards to small aircraft using large-eddy simulations (LES) of a utility-scale turbine wake. Wind-generated lift forces and subsequent rolling moments are calculated for hypothetical aircraft transecting the wake in various orientations. Stably and neutrally stratified cases are explored, with the stable case presenting a possible worst-case scenario due to longer-persisting wakes permitted by lower ambient turbulence. In both cases, only 0.001 % of rolling moments experienced by hypothetical aircraft during down-wake and cross-wake transects lead to an increased risk of rolling.Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Academy of Wind Energy e.V.Author contributions. JKL and PJM conceived the research. MJC designed and carried out the large-eddy simulations. JMT designed and executed the method for calculating roll hazards with significant input from PJM and MJC. JMT wrote the paper with significant contributions from JKL. All co-authors contributed to refining the text and conclusions.Competing interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.