Does it still exist?

T

TenSeven

Filing Flight Plan
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Mike
Are the days of walking out your front door, over to 'hanger', rolling your plane out and flying off your 'airstrip' for a leisurely flight around your property, still exist?

Can you still get a Pilots license, buy/build a small plane and live somewhere that allows you to hanger it and fly off your own property?

Are those simple days long gone?

There are very expensive 'air parks' where the homes include attached hangers and a private airstrip. Great, if you can actually afford it.

Perhaps, there are homes, way out in the rural sticks of Wyoming or such that are obscure enough that you don't have complaining neighbors and the FAA doesn't even know you exist.

What if you were looking for a property that would allow for that kind of homestead flying experience, where would you even look? Even if you found a rural property, how could you find out if you could fly off it?
 
Sure it happens. I know a lot of farmers here in Iowa that just take a strip of land near their home out of crop production, grade it, mow it and maintain it, and fly their plane from their house. The FAA has no jurisdiction over it. The only thing that could be a bump in the road is if a neighbor takes offense and makes an issue, but you are in the country and the nearest neighbor is often quite a distance.
 
Last night I was daydreaming of a small house with a big shop and a way big hangar and on one side was a 3000' grass strip, the other side was an inland waterway with simple docks leading to a large lake. With a small forested area not far; the rest of it was putting-green grass, a huge open, covered patio with a BBQ by the pool.
 
Who needs a pilot's license? Build an ultralight or fly a PPC. But yeah. You're not going to do it in a suburban neighborhood within ten minutes drive of Wally World, and walk back in your house to your high speed Internet connection.

You want an eye opener? Go shopping for a Champ. I was amazed at how many I found that are out of annual, registration expired, pilots with no medical, no logbooks, whatever. FAA doesn't drive down farm roads looking for guys buzzing soybean fields, I guess.

I also found that for every Pecan Plantation or Spruce Creek, there's a couple of little podunk air parks you'll never know about unless you go looking. Some of them are fairly low budget.
 
Ton of fly-in communities just south of ATL. Seen a few in N. MS flying into and out of MEM. Imagine the same near or not far from other airline pilot hubs.

Fast Eddie just bought 3 acres in TN on a grass strip.
 
Thanks guys, great video.

I guess those opportunities are still out there, just gotta find them.
 
Look all over Texas. Plenty of such things exist. Of course you have to pony up some $$$ to have the land, but once you are there it is possible.
 
You simply must make enough money to do what you want.
 
TenSeven said:
What if you were looking for a property that would allow for that kind of homestead flying experience, where would you even look? Even if you found a rural property, how could you find out if you could fly off it?
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The midwest. They were everywhere back home. As long as there isn't a zoning restriction saying you cant make it an airport. In my home state you still had to apply to make it a landing area with the state Department of Transportation Aviation section. It was for private use it got an initial inspection. You had to fill out an FAA 7480-1 and the state form as well, but that is about it.
 
RyanShort1 said:
Look all over Texas. Plenty of such things exist. Of course you have to pony up some $$$ to have the land, but once you are there it is possible.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine bought some acreage near Lockhart. He built a house, a hangar, and a 2,600' grass strip. It's a really nice setup.
 
I don't have to walk out the front door. I go from the kitchen, past the laundry room and my workshop and into the hangar without ever having to go outside. It's about 75 feet from my door to the runway and while there is probably about 1800 from my house to the end of the runway, I always back taxi for the full length.
 
Sure you can, as long as you don't live in a prison like NYC, LA, SFO etc.
 
I'm looking at doing that very such thing... All I need is a 2500 ft long strip of land (or shorter but clear of any obstructions) and an RV.. If the tract is long enough, its a no-brainer.. Looking at a 22 acre tract now thats coming on the market in the next few months. Its about 2200 long and about 500 wide... but I would only need to grade/disc about 200 ft of it.

Not having to pay 3-500 a month in hangar? Keep fuel at the home drone? Let some goats graze the strip to keep it trimmed? Priceless...
 
If you have goats don't forget to claim your Ag exemption.
 
Just looking at the Seattle Sectional and within 20 miles of my home airport there are 20 privately owned grass strips that are registered, plus numerous others that are flying under the radar. Flying from your home hangar is still a pretty common dream and lots of people are living it. We looked seriously at lots on private airparks, but airport associations can be tough to deal with. We couldn't afford a place big enough to have all we wanted by ourselves, so our plane is at an airport 4 minutes from my house. There are 2 mechanics on the field and that has come in handy more than once. Our house is on a small lot, but we have a view of the sea and of snowcapped mountains (Mount Baker & the Cascades). Overall, we're really happy with this balance. If you do build your own strip, let us all know where it is so we can come visit and live the good life for a few hours.
 
My daughter and her family live in farm country in central New York. Her neighbor owns the farm property across the street from her house. This particular patch is a mile wide and 4 miles long, and flat as a billiard table.
My wife and I were attending a party up there a few years ago and I brought some RC planes to amuse my grandkids and the people at the party. I was flying an RC plane off the road and over the guys field. He had never seen an RC plane before, and was like a little kid watching it. I got out a slow flying trainer and let him fly it. I mentioned I was also a full scale a pilot and commented that there wasn't an airport anywhere within 30 miles, of my daughter's house, so I couldn't fly up (I'm not flying anything "bush ready" these days) and had to drive the 2.5+ hours to get there.
The neighbor graded a 100 ft wide, 3,000 ft long swath, directly across the street from my daughters house, seeded it and keeps it cut. When I fly up I give the guy a 30 minute ride in the plane, and we fly models together off "our" airport.
Yeah, it's still possible.
 
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