How Often are grass runway used, when there is a paved runway?

Lots to learn about grass runways. Aside from soft, muddy, etc. grass length will affect landing a little and takeoff a lot. If not well marked it can be difficult to find and difficult to align with when it and the surrounding field are mown. Very little traction when wet usually.
 
ebetancourt said:
Lots to learn about grass runways. Aside from soft, muddy, etc. grass length will affect landing a little and takeoff a lot. If not well marked it can be difficult to find and difficult to align with when it and the surrounding field are mown. Very little traction when wet usually.
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The type of grass matters as well. Bermuda is very draggy compared to fescue unless its cut pretty short.
 
Wait until you're comfortable with it but there is nothing wrong with grass. With proper soft field technique, it's probably better on the plane than hard surfaced.
 
Grass is more forgiving. I instructed for years at an airport with both grass and pavement, and I landed on grass whenever I could...especially with taildraggers.

Bob
 
If you have Alaska 26-30" tundra tires............every time you land on pavement, about $10 of rubber is scraped off. These types prefer grass.

The first time I landed ever on pavement was on the way to Oregon to meet my DE for Private, in Wally's Taylorcraft!!

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AKBill said:
When I lived in Lead, SD I used the grass runway in Spearfish, SD for about 1/2 of my flying. Loved the grass...:thumbsup::thumbsup:
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I soloed my first student on those, fantastic, smooth, beautiful grass runwayS.

Clip4 said:
A TBM 930 will run with that gas pig and carry 6 in pressurized air conditioned comfort.
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:) Yeah but, itsa FU4, (from VFM-122, no less) noodered or not.... :) (will fly a TBM for money, however)
 
I used to fly in to SYF regularly in June for their Stearman Fly-In weekend. Almost literally, everyone, except those with rentals prohibiting it, used the immaculate grass runways in preference to the paved one. It was the first time i ever landed on a grass strip and it was a non-event.
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Cam Bender said:
I’ve found landing on grass to be no harder than landing on pavement if not easier.
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Side story: the place I rented from was one of the few which permitted lading on certain unimproved runways after a "ground checkout" with the chief flight instructor. One of the questions asked was, what kind of landing do you anticipate? My answer was "soft field." His response, semi-tongue-in-cheek was, "if you need to do a soft field landing, we don't want you landing there." He was right. Landing on the grass there was never more than a normal landing, although I kept the stick back throughout the rollout and taxi.
 
James331 said:
Why are you scared of grass runways?
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I wouldn't say I'm scared of them, but I am cautious of them, and would generally choose the paved as a result unless the winds were more than I was comfortable with.

Why? Simply because I have no experience on them. They are an unknown to me, and therefore something to be treated with caution until I have experience.

From the other comments here it certainly seems like I'm being unnecessarily conservative, so that's good to know... but I try to arrange things so that most surprises are good ones.
 
deyoung said:
I wouldn't say I'm scared of them, but I am cautious of them, and would generally choose the paved as a result unless the winds were more than I was comfortable with.

Why? Simply because I have no experience on them. They are an unknown to me, and therefore something to be treated with caution until I have experience.

From the other comments here it certainly seems like I'm being unnecessarily conservative, so that's good to know... but I try to arrange things so that most surprises are good ones.
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Not a bad idea. Not all grass rwys are created equal. Even if you do get familiar with the way they feel, they can be quite different from airport to airport. Gravel can get kicked up on some, there can be ruts in others. In very dry weather, cracks can form that might cause problems. Lots of variations.
 
Matthew said:
Not a bad idea. Not all grass rwys are created equal. Even if you do get familiar with the way they feel, they can be quite different from airport to airport.
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Even the same grass runway can be different from day to day, dry and bumpy one day, wet and squishy another day.
 
My very first landing and takeoff on grass, was for the recent eclipse. We flew to Tripletree in my Cherokee.
Of course that runway is longer than most grass runways, and quite wide. When we left, it was from mid field, little bit longer takeoff roll, but a non event.
 
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