Grass airfields?

Diana

Diana

Final Approach
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Diana
What is the most interesting, unique, or challenging grass airfield that you have flown into? Why were you landing there...for fun, food, fuel, a museum, a fly-in, the people? Was it public, private, or not even listed on a sectional? How did you find out about it?
 
My home field is the only grass strip I've flown at. It's not challenging anymore, but I've had other pilots & non-pilots in the right seat be intimidated by it, mostly because of the high rate of descent maintained longer than usual (passing over the threshold trees) and landing in the last 1,500 feet or so.
 

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Mine's short and narrow, but at least it's got obstacles... ;)

I used to tow gliders out of a relatively short strip that required a turn to final within about 1000' of the threshold on one end, and we had to be 100' over the fence on the other end. Both were to keep the tow rope from dragging through stuff.

Fly safe!

David
 
David - where was that?

My most satisfying grass strip was when I finally got to land on my uncle's farm strip. Its about 1800 ft long but was no problem for a STOL 172 with a nice headwind both in and out. He had given me a ride or two off that strip when I was a kid and I had flown RC models out of there, it was just cool to finally land there on my own.

There is always the 600 ft long piece of grass next to Runway 13 at Ames that we land the gliders and towplane on. Not technically a runway but its pretty nice.

Do nice pastures count? ;)
 
msupples1 said:
My home field is the only grass strip I've flown at. It's not challenging anymore, but I've had other pilots & non-pilots in the right seat be intimidated by it, mostly because of the high rate of descent maintained longer than usual (passing over the threshold trees) and landing in the last 1,500 feet or so.
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I was hoping to land there on my trip. It sounds like a great place to learn to fly! :yes:
 
The day before my checkride I had to fly with the chief flight instructor at the school to be signed off. This was in Sough Georgia and he wanted me to land on this small field that was commonly used by cropdusters for refilling chemicals. It wasn't even a runway but it was plenty smooth. I was young and ignorant and pretty confident since he was with me. Well I nailed the landing. We were there for a little while when the instructor started having doubts about us being able to get out of there safely. It was the middle of the summer and he was pretty big. He left me and did a takeoff by himself to see how much runway we would use up, circled and picked me up. I then had to do a short/soft field takeoff. Now that I'm older and smarter I wouldn't do that again.
 
tonycondon said:
My most satisfying grass strip was when I finally got to land on my uncle's farm strip. Its about 1800 ft long but was no problem for a STOL 172 with a nice headwind both in and out. He had given me a ride or two off that strip when I was a kid and I had flown RC models out of there, it was just cool to finally land there on my own.
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That was a nice story. :)

tonycondon said:
Do nice pastures count? ;)
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Oh, I suppose...in your case Tony, they do. ;)
 
Diana said:
What is the most interesting, unique, or challenging grass airfield that you have flown into? Why were you landing there...for fun, food, fuel, a museum, a fly-in, the people? Was it public, private, or not even listed on a sectional? How did you find out about it?
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Interesting: Well, Wild Rose is interesting in that when Basler finishes converting DC3's to turboprops, that's where they go to train the pilots! I want to see that. :yes: There's also Three Lakes, which has a VERY nice runway, on-field camping, and right across the street there's a restaurant, convenience store (more like a mini-grocery store than your average c-store), and boat rental.

Unique: Central County in Iola, WI (68C). Big hangar that says "built for the love of flying" and there's a fly-in (hopefully) lunch EVERY Friday. Yes, that's EVERY Friday, even in the middle of winter, even if the weather sucks, even the day after Thanksgiving, etc. If people can't fly in, they drive. A most excellent aviation community. :)

Challenging: 6Y9, when the runway was only 2000' and Ed didn't want us to use the first 300'. :hairraise: After the first takeoff outta there, we all used the first 300' anyway. :D I've taken off from much shorter runways (I think the shortest is Rio, at under 1100') but they didn't have so many trees quite so close to the end of the runway.
 
What about Gaston's? That's probably the most interesting strip this flatlander has dealt with.

I guess Tony and I could vouch for a few farm fields and pastures, too. Matt Michael prefers city parks.
 
Does it have to be an airport? I flew my 170 into my folks 40 acre farm a few times. Mostly for maintenance. One way in, one way out. It was 1,300 feet with a dropoff about 800 feet from the takeoff end. I flew out with half tanks of gas and just me. Took three passes the first time in for me to screw up the courage to actually land.
 
A soaring friend of mine used to land his Bird Dog in a farm field next to a McDonald's somewhere in New Hampshire. He'd taxi up next to the drive-through, shut down, jump the fence, and order at the drive-through window.

OT: I once ordered at a drive-through on my motorcycle. Holding the drink in one hand and riding with the other was a challenge, but entirely possible (if not a little juvenile). Stopping at intersections involved at least one handoff of the drink so I could operate either the clutch or throttle as needed. The expression on my friends' faces when I rolled into the motorcycle shop parking lot was priceless.
 
Family owns a grass strip in the Northeast Georgia mountains. 1800' with a 40 foot height difference between ends. You always land up hill and takeoff down hill. A tall ridge about 1200' from the approach/departure end so pattern planning is a must.
Flown a Cherokee Six 260, a Luscombe 8A, a couple of homebuilts all regularly and 68 172 in and out once. Lots of fun.

The original owner built it by bulldozing a notch in a ridge and moving it down hill so you land and takeoff through the ridge. Freaks out some boaters on the lake cause all they see is an airplane disappearing into the trees headed toward the side of the ridge!!
 

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tonycondon said:
David - where was that?
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Woodbine, MD...former site of Bay Soaring. Strip is still there, but the glider operation is gone.

tonycondon said:
Do nice pastures count? ;)
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Sure, but that's cheating...the landing gear of the Maule fits perfectly between 30" rows ;)

foka4 said:
OT: I once ordered at a drive-through on my motorcycle. Holding the drink in one hand and riding with the other was a challenge, but entirely possible (if not a little juvenile). Stopping at intersections involved at least one handoff of the drink so I could operate either the clutch or throttle as needed. The expression on my friends' faces when I rolled into the motorcycle shop parking lot was priceless.
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Used to do that with black raspberry milkshakes all the time...Try eating Cup-A-Soup while towing gliders off a rough strip in a Pawnee sometime.:goofy:

Fly safe!

David
 
Diana said:
Oh, I suppose...in your case Tony, they do. ;)
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In that case the most interesting has got to be the pasture I landed in a year ago September that was owned by the Amish family. That was just plain coooooool.

Challenging was this year in a little postage stamp pasture southeast of Ames about 10 miles. Matt Michael had seen that pasture hundreds of time and didnt think it could be done.
 
Then, of course, there's Plaza, ND (Y99)...single sod strip..."TURF SFC HAS NUMEROUS LARGE HOLES; GRASS CLUMPS; AND ROLLING; NORTH HALF SMOOTHER THAN REST."

Trust me...there ARE numerous large holes in that strip.

Fly safe!

David
 
maddog52 said:
Family owns a grass strip in the Northeast Georgia mountains. 1800' with a 40 foot height difference between ends. You always land up hill and takeoff down hill. A tall ridge about 1200' from the approach/departure end so pattern planning is a must.
Flown a Cherokee Six 260, a Luscombe 8A, a couple of homebuilts all regularly and 68 172 in and out once. Lots of fun.

The original owner built it by bulldozing a notch in a ridge and moving it down hill so you land and takeoff through the ridge. Freaks out some boaters on the lake cause all they see is an airplane disappearing into the trees headed toward the side of the ridge!!
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Where is that.
 
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