Landing A 182 In My Back Yard?

AMFlying said:
Thanks again for lots of great suggestions!




The Sportsman was also on my short list. I really like that plane and there are a few out there for sale. Do you think that would be better on short fields than the 182? Just lighter I guess? Could not find a lot of short field reports on them.




Might be an option to look into for sure!

Ok... don't hate me for this question if it is really dumb. Just thinking outloud here. I was standing outside tonight thinking... what about rolling under the power lines? I'm not talking about FLYING under them but what about starting your takeoff roll 300' before the lines and rolling under them? Same with landing- could you finish your landing roll under them if you overshot a little? It would take some work to smooth it all out (there is a ditch there) but I could get close to 1500' pretty easy that way and possibly get close to 2000' with some extra work. Still would not help takeoff going towards the lines though so maybe pointless.

Still might be better to re-evaluate the aircraft instead.


The only problem with getting an easement from the farmer is there is a stream that runs between our properties. Otherwise that would be ideal!
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If the stream isn’t too wide you could run it through a culvert. Look at some Just Aircraft EABs.
 
Matthew Rogers said:
and the world's first rocket mail airplane at Greenwood Lake
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He would be proud...

Wile-E-Coyote-1280x720.jpg
 
flyingron said:
Eh?
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Brad Damm, CubCrafters VP of Sales & Marketing. “A nosewheel equipped XCub is a very easy airplane to fly that takes off shorter, lands shorter, and cruises faster than the tailwheel version. Once a pilot is in the airplane and experiences it, the advantages are obvious.”
 
I'm voting for 'tight but doable.' My avatar pic is my backyard strip, so I'm pretty familiar with flying off midwest grass in the middle of a flat field. I have 40' power lines about 300' off the north end, nothing off the south, but my strip is 2500'. We really only ever use half of our length, and when I am really light and trying hard I can get down to under 300' landings and 600' takeoffs, in a stock 150.

A 1200' strip is tight but you should still have some margin, and if things don't work out ( hotter, heavier, X-wind, etc.) you fly to the big airport solo and pick up fuel and passengers, or land there. Less convenient for sure, but a safe out.

As for burying power lines, I was quoted $100K to bury the ones to my north, and the company wasn't going to split it with me either. Needless to say, they're still up, with orange balls on them.

Patrick
 
Wagondriver said:
Tricycles tend to get off quicker, they don’t Have the excess drag to raise the tail.
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Some trikes get off quicker because the gear geometry allows them to rotate to a higher AOA than the equivalent tailwheel model on takeoff. The RV series is one example.
 
MBDiagMan said:
Its okay Ron. Humor them. The folks who can’t fly tailwheel need that.
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I bought my 180 when I had 140 hours total, 67 tail wheel in a home built I put together. I still consider myself low time, I’m now around 550 hours conventional gear, most of it in my 180, some in a husky, the rest in my home built.

Maybe someday I can learn how to “fly tailwheel”, and someone can learn me some physics..
 
I take my 182 (PPONK, no other STOL mods) in and out of strips like that in New Zealand regularly. It's certainly practical. Strip condition and aircraft weight do make a big difference.
 
I fly a 182 and get into those length strips regularly, with wires at the ends. I wouldn't have dare tried as a new pilot. Sounds like you need a Carbon Cub. Just add power and up you go!
 
But to be serious for a moment. New pilot, short grass field - not worth the risk to you and your bride. Either get more land or just get a fun plane like a cub and rent when want to take wife on trips.
 
I agree with many here that what the book says you can do is not synonymous with what you’d enjoy doing regularly. I’d start with a plane that has very short field capability, fly that one out of your field for a while, then see how you feel about a different plane.

A friend of mine has a Reims Rocket, which a C172 with 210 HP, and is based at an airport called Jesenwang just outside of Munich, Germany. The area is notoriously underserved by GA airports and this one is about 1300 ft long at 1860 msl, with a road crossing one end of the runway. It’s all he has available, but he’s flown there a long time and is used to it. When I flew there with him there was a Mooney in the hangar and various other similar planes. They can do it, but most would prefer not to if they had a choice.

I also saw a Mooney at Lake Wohlford near San Diego, which is also about 1300 ft long. Would I choose to be based there with anything other than a STOL plane? No thanks.
 
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Tusayan said:
I also saw a Mooney at Lake Wohlford near San Diego, which is also about 1300 ft long. Would I choose to be based there with anything other than a STOL plane? No thanks.
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Book landing distance in my Mooney is 1500 feet over an obstacle. A pal did it in a Mooney just like mine (actually it wasn't just like mine, his was a mess) but his landing was, shall we say, sporting. No obstacle and you're looking at about 8700 feet according to the book, but I think you're coming in behind the power curve and plopping in. Not exactly the way I like doing things. In general I'd rather not have to be on my "A" game just to get home.
 
I think I didn't represent my timeline correctly. This was one of the ideas on my 'long term goals list'- not something I would be trying on my XC Solo :). I would certainly wait until I had the experience to pull it off- if it was realistic at any normal skill level. I would keep the plane at a local airport until that day. Baby steps.

I re-measured and changed the layout a little and can get 1,800' without a lot of work, at that new angle, I will miss the creek so an easement from the farmer might actually work pretty good. I'm going to see if he might be interested in selling/leasing/easment-ing(?) me some land.

Yes, I have all of the tools to make a nice strip. Dozer, backhoe, loader, 15' box blade, laser transit, grain drill. We have a pretty large farm that we lease out now but still have a lot of the toys from when we farmed it. We've built lots of roads and used to re-slope 100+ acre fields for irrigation so dirt work will not be a problem.
 
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AMFlying said:
So Covid has wrecked my PPL timeline but, while I'm patiently waiting for my medical to get sorted out, I decided I would fine tune my long/midterm goals and see if you all think they are possible/logical or where the holes are in my plan.

I'm at about 20 hours now into my PPL and waiting on medical to get sorted out. Once I have my medical I would like to do my solo and then buy a Cessna 182 to finish my training in. The goal is to eventually fly the plane from my back yard. I have 40 acres and a relatively nice flat piece of land where I can get a 1,200' long strip right into prevailing winds. The land is way out in the country and not many neighbors. I have all of the dirt moving toys to pretty easily make something that looks like a grass/dirt/gravel strip.

My questions:
Is 1,200' a realistic runway length at 1,000'msl for a 182? No obstacles at one end (huge flat wheat field) and residential power line at the other (20' height maybe?). I know according to the published numbers it is do-able but is it realistic to do consistently (with lots of practice at an airport first of course)? I could probably stretch it to 1,500' with a little extra work.

I have read a lot here about putting in your own private airstrip (or maybe I should just call it 'repeatedly landing in your own field and parking your airplane there') and the legalities of doing it. It really sounds like out in the country there is not much stopping you. I have 4 neighbors that are on a street that starts about 3,000' from the 'runway' and runs perpendicular to the property. No one lives at the ends of the runway. The next closest neighbors are miles away. My neighbors all have noisy hobbies. One has dirtbikes, one has a drag car of some kind, the closest neighbor does some kind of target practice at the crack of dawn on the weekends with what sounds like a .50BMG :/ So I'm not really too worried about the noise and I wont be flying at the crack of dawn either. Does anyone have any personal experience they would care to share?

I really appreciate any input. Thanks!
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Yes very doable in a 182, even stock, but I would put a Sportsman STOL, VGs, MT prop and an angle of attack indicator, and the plane will be ready , and it will make it easily , just fly it light.
Then we need the pilot to be ready, so train, and practice practice practice, patience is key.
It will make you a better pilot anyway so its a win win situation.
 
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AMFlying said:
I re-measured and changed the layout a little and can get 1,800' without a lot of work, at that new angle, I will miss the creek so an easement from the farmer might actually work pretty good. I'm going to see if he might be interested in selling/leasing/easment-ing(?) me some land.
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I think 1,800 feet would be doable under reasonable circumstances - weight, wind, and density altitude. I'd feel much better about that than the 1,200' you initially mentioned.
 
Start now you have already met the most difficult condition that you must pass so begin while she's in agreement. The best time is now because it does not take away from your solo time that you are not getting. You can always buy an airplane to meet your airport and not so easy to buy an airport to meet your airplane as we have already discovered.
 
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