Flight school train on grass strip?

A friend has a private grass strip in the foothills. Been a few days since I've been up that way. Here's a photo I took while sitting at the table eating breakfast:

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Daleandee said:
Not a flight school but a great instructor and a nice grass field with a couple of airplanes for various types of training. Beautiful location:

Blue Ridge Sport Flight

FAA Designated Pilot Examiner, Greg Collins. Practical Test Checkrides for Private, Instrument, and Commercial certificates in the western Carolinas.
blueridgesportflight.com
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Plus one for Blue Ridge sport flight, I did his combined PP/Instrument course back in 2018, real nice guy and knows his stuff.

Didn't even land on pavement until 20 hours in lol.
 
Eric S said:
Plus one for Blue Ridge sport flight, I did his combined PP/Instrument course back in 2018, real nice guy and knows his stuff.

Didn't even land on pavement until 20 hours in lol.
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Yulp, I did my tailwheel training there in 2011. Fun little grass strip ...
 
I’m trying to remember the FBO rental rules from the different places I’ve used. Pretty sure one place listed 3-4 runways as “approved” and one just said “any public use airport”. But in no case were gravel operations allowed.
 
FastEddieB said:
I think it’s borderline negligent to sign off a Private Pilot applicant with only simulated soft field experience.
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When I was a CFI, our flight school owners absolutely refused to allow us to show PPL students a real grass field even once. It was a real shame as we had a long, safe grass strip just 20nm away.

Fortunately the office manager would keep an eye out for grass-stained tires and remind us to go "wash the tires" before the owners got there.
 
GeorgeC said:
https://chesapeakesportpilot.com/ has been training at 3W3 while W29 has been getting repavef
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ROBUC said:
When I was a CFI, our flight school owners absolutely refused to allow us to show PPL students a real grass field even once. It was a real shame as we had a long, safe grass strip just 20nm away.

Fortunately the office manager would keep an eye out for grass-stained tires and remind us to go "wash the tires" before the owners got there.
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Wet spring conditions? Usually tires not an issue but leaves in the tailwheel springs could be a dead giveaway!
 
Shannon Airport KEZF in Fredericksburg VA has a grass runway and a paved runway. JLS Aviation has a flight school there. Most of the techniques you use on grass can and will be taught on pavement because it is easier on the airframe, then transition to grass is a minor change. Hope this helps.
 
William Pete Hodges said:
Shannon Airport KEZF in Fredericksburg VA has a grass runway and a paved runway. JLS Aviation has a flight school there. Most of the techniques you use on grass can and will be taught on pavement because it is easier on the airframe, then transition to grass is a minor change. Hope this helps.
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Completely contrary to my experience - unless wickedly dry and rutted, grass is smooth and forgiving, whereas pavement is much less so. You can’t tickle the tires with pavement as you gently set her down. And you can’t flat a tire on grass when a student lands with the brakes on.

That said, a big heavy tricycle gear aircraft on grass can be more easily damaged with the 400-600# weight on the nosewheel if the student or pilot can’t keep the nose off the ground when landing and until nearly stopped. Grass is both undulating and small ruts may amplify the loads on the nose strut. Perhaps that is what you are referring to as easier on the airframe.
 
I was on downwind for 23 at FDK doing my tailwheel transition and the instructor pulled the mixture and asked what I was going to do. I said land on 30 (no other traffic), he says "put it on the grass, it will be more realistic." (There's a grass strip parallel to 30, primarily for gliders).
 
FastEddieB said:
Are there no grass strips within a reasonable distance? A student’s long crosscountry might include one of those.
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Out here growing and maintaining grass is a challenge. There are some cool dirt strips, but the club I fly with won't allow me to take any of the rentals to them.
 
Flying out of central Minnesota, grass strip operations were certainly part of our Private curriculum.
 
I require all my primary students to go into a grass strip. And I usually do it by pulling the power in the middle of a training flight and letting them find it and land. This of course is at an appropriate phase of their training. BTW a pilot will never truly understand the nuances of the ACS required soft field take off and landing if it's only done on a paved runway. (Kind of like an instrument instructor/school not willing to train in actual.)
 
MauleSkinner said:
Probably even if they don’t actually operate from a soft field.
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Don't disagree. But feeling the resistance of even slightly long grass shows the need to get up in ground effect if you ever want to accelerate. Also if there are low spots, they better get the idea of why you don't stop when you're taxiing. It's been an eye opener to my students when comparing the same technique on paved runways and taxiways.
 
I learned all that on my own out flying by my self after getting my PPL.
I knew enough to get out of flight school and not kill my self.
I bought a 172 and started flying it as much as I could. 4-6 days a week.

It was very rewarding and fun each time I got better.
I only landed on grass twice during PPL training and it was on the same day and a blurr because it was during a stage check.

I had 800 hours before I started flying with a new friend who is a standards check airman and he fine tuned what I learned on my own. like I already said, once you learn to land you can land on anything. Imo
I am a lucky guy.
Grass field training would concern me if you would have enough radio training especially if your instructor does not take you to controlled airport often.
 
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Trcpilot said:
I am looking for a flight school that allows grass strip landings or train at a grass strip airport. Post location, independent cfi and/or school name. Thank you
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Hi. Columbia California (O22) has an awesome grass strip and the flight school trains you to land on it. I am a student pilot and landed on the grass strip yesterday. :)
 
DaleB said:
No grass strips when I was training. Rentals from the FBO were specifically prohibited from landing on anything but pavement. My first operation on grass was with an instructor in a flying club plane, and was also a soft-field operation because the grass was tall and thick. I've flown from grass a few times since then, ranging from "oh-crap-this-stuff-is-wet-and-slippery" to Gaston's, which may as well have been paved.
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Hi! We have a school in California at O22 with a grass strip a d training for PPL on it!
 
My training included grass strips. JA Air center at KARR. CFI was employed by JA.
 
Andover Flight Academy at Andover/Aeroflex (12N) in NJ. Damian is chief instructor but all are good. About 1800' of grass parallel to a paved runway. From J-3 to Stearman available to learn in - only tailwheel may use the grass runway. Harrison Ford and and James Brolin trained there.

Picture is just a random grass strip..

Grass.jpg
 
Back in the day grass operations were part of the training. When I rented the flight school owner would approve grass operations on a pilot to pilot basis.
 
frfly172 said:
Back in the day grass operations were part of the training. When I rented the flight school owner would approve grass operations on a pilot to pilot basis.
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Same here. However, we learned in 150/152s, then 172s, and were adept at keeping the nose wheel high off the ground in the flare, only to be gently and controllably lowered to the grass. See less of this today, which could account for the prohibitions on grass - the nose gear is a fragile flower and suspect too many have been sacrificed.
 
Our club insurance required CFI checkout before solo grass operations, and limited us to public fields

They had a small print sentence that stated that specific non public grass strips could be approved. I called them, and requested a farm strip in Missouri, with a Beech Baron based on it. They called the owner, verified the Beech, and that I had permission to land, and added it to our policy. 4000 feet by 200 feet, mowed with their lawn.

Another farm field had a dogleg along a ridge top, in a corn field, he had a Cessna 180, and the insurance approve my use in a Cessna 172.

I think I had 4 grass strips in my log book by 40 hours.
 
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