First time on grass strip

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dennyleeb

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I am going to Alabama this weekend and the place I am going has a grass strip. It is suppose to be well manicured. I have wheels pants on my 182 and I am a bit nervous about hurting them. Any tips? Should I just go to the nearest paved runway (about 5 miles away)? Like I said in the title I have never landed on a grass strip before.
 
First solo was on grass - IF I recall, w/ wheel pants. I don't think the pants will be at risk.

Land nice and slow - do several approaches to get comfortable with hitting the target - put her down nice and gentle and keep the nose up as long as possible. Taxi with full back yoke ALL THE TIME.

Plan on short/soft takeoff and get that nose up in the air while you're still on the ground and get into ground effect right away. Practice those on pavement before you go if you're rusty.
 
Depends on the strip. Both my aircraft had pants, I've landed turf without incident, and I had a chip gouged out of my nose pant by one.
 
steingar said:
Depends on the strip. Both my aircraft had pants, I've landed turf without incident, and I had a chip gouged out of my nose pant by one.
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Would you agree that the chip probably came from a flying rock or something similar?
 
I've never landed on grass in a nosedragger, but landing on a grass strip in a taildragger is about as much fun as I've ever had with my clothes on.
 
I've been landing my 182 on grass (with pants) for the last 10 years without any problems. But our field is kept pretty immaculate. I've landed at others that were pretty ragged. Best idea is to go walk the field first and get familiar with the surface. And if the grass is wet land ultra slow since you'll have little traction and braking can be much less effective than normal.
 
write-stuff said:
I've been landing my 182 on grass (with pants) for the last 10 years without any problems. But our field is kept pretty immaculate. I've landed at others that were pretty ragged. Best idea is to go walk the field first and get familiar with the surface. And if the grass is wet land ultra slow since you'll have little traction and braking can be much less effective than normal.
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I won't have the chance to do that but I am told by the owner that uses it a lot that it is in good shape
 
Greebo said:
Would you agree that the chip probably came from a flying rock or something similar?
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Don't rightly know. It wasn't there before that visit, and was just after. No doubt partizans of turf will blame nose wheel gremlins. I do have to tremulously point out that those who routinely visit turf strips often do so with their wheel pants removed.
 
dennyleeb said:
I am going to Alabama this weekend and the place I am going has a grass strip.
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Moontown by chance?

If so. You'll have a blast.

BTW, I have wheel pants on my 182, I'm based on grass, have visited at least 2 dozen other grass strips and have had no issues at all.

Mechanics are far harder on my wheel pants than any grass strips I've ever been to.
 
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My usual parking spot at the marina grass strip happens to be at the approximate spot where pilots usually rotate. The single biggest pilot mistake I see is that they over-rotate because of their (unfounded) concern about runway length (3,200' downhill with 20 miles of lake ahead) and then mush/stagger/lurch along in ground effect for much to long before they finally gain alititude. A normal takeoff with enough back pressure to keep some weight off the nose wheel is usually preferable and much more effective.



Greebo said:
Taxi with full back yoke ALL THE TIME.

Plan on short/soft takeoff and get that nose up in the air while you're still on the ground and get into ground effect right away. Practice those on pavement before you go if you're rusty.
Click to expand...
 
dennyleeb said:
I am going to Alabama this weekend and the place I am going has a grass strip. It is suppose to be well manicured. I have wheels pants on my 182 and I am a bit nervous about hurting them. Any tips? Should I just go to the nearest paved runway (about 5 miles away)? Like I said in the title I have never landed on a grass strip before.
Click to expand...

Heh. See you here at 3M0 soon! ;)

(The wheel pants will be fine.) :)
 
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