Shortest strip you've flown from

AdamZ

AdamZ

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Adam Zucker
What is the shortest strip you have flown out of? Include whether grass or paved and type aircraft.

N43 Braden Airpark 1956' Paved Cherokee 140

6Y9 Prickett-Grooms 2600' Grass J35 Bonanza
 
I put a strip on the farm that was 1500' after the trees got too tall in the 900' patch I was using for my Maule.
 
I soloed, and instructed from 1800'.
Landing with snow cover, and touch & goes, were commonplace.
 
2000' grass, in and out in my Mooney. Skydivers used it with a 182 until the pilot ran out of gas and deadsticked it into the cement factory's gravel pile on short final. Then they bought a 206 . . .
 
It's nothing to write home about but the grass strips at KCHK Chickasha Municipal are my shortest so far at 2200'. Have used them in several different aircraft.

Weak, I know. :(
 
Here.

850ft useable. I did it in a caravan once, and decided it would be a **** poor idea to ever do it in a caravan again.
 
Strip? The shortest strip I know was 400' but that's been extended to 600'. My shortest LZ? Probably 300'.
 
Zeldman said:
Dayum....!!!! In a 'van..?? :loco: :lol::lol::lol:
Click to expand...

I know a guy who used to haul dynamite in and out of there in the Navajo lol.....

I was shuttling kids from old harbor (on kodiak island) to nanwalek for a basketball game. After the first load of kids I said hell no im not landing there again, and I flew the next load to homer and one of the bay carriers brought them down.
 
My shortest is a lot longer than some of yours. Oceano Airport (L52) 2,325 x 50 and easily rolled off at the taxiway at about 1,800' in my Mooney.

 
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A friend of mine has a runway at his farm that is about 1200 feet. I'd guess that is the shortest official runway I've landed on.
 
4W8 - Elma, WA 2280' and only 30' wide, to boot.

I've taken off from 44T - Hoskins Field. 2015', grass.
 
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When I had my Cub I'd usually land it on the 1,000' long grass strip paralleling the paved runway at the home field. Otherwise, I guess the shortest was 1900' long at 2172' elevation, but the approach is interesting (Mackay Bar, Idaho).

Screen Shot 2017-09-12 at 9.37.49 PM.png

Come to think of it, we did drop in on a couple of sub-1500' farm strips around Yakima when I was getting checked out in the Sport Cub.
 
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I know I've done shorter, but the most memorable was 1800'.......in an Arrow.........from the right seat.........no toe brakes, just the hand brake.........on my CFI checkride!

The examiner really didn't have me do that much else other than basic air work, but he felt that if I was really going to teach, I'd better be able to land there, and make sure my students could as well.
 
Just for trivial knowledge, I thinK POH (Pocahontas, IA) and 7OR0 (Minam, OR) with 2,000 turf at either are the shortest I've departed from. Pretty light at Minam and was off in about 1,000. Full of gas and camping gear at POH but lifted off before the crossing runway so maybe used 1,500'. Both were in the 'kota. Minam was after the top overhaul. POH was prior to the intercooler install which was well before the top.

For shortest ground run in the 'kota...I did lift off at the first hump on the old ramp/runway at PUB (it no longer exists). That was about 800' I think. At sea level it would do a little better.
Longest ground run in the 'kota has to be Leadville. I think that was about 3,000' with full fuel and 1 (small) pax.
Longest ground roll on arrival in the 'kota has to be Dixon, WY. It was about 6,000'. Don't ask but it was downwind and downhill.

Edit: I've landed on the grass at GLD, 1,781' but departed from pavement, 5,499'. As is typical for western Kansas there was a pretty good breeze and the turf, runway 23, was directly into it. It was a veterans airlift flight from Manhattan, KS to Denver and after a couple of hours against a headwind both the pax and I were ready for a break so made the unplanned stop at GLD since they have a cafe on field. Anyway, I was the only aircraft in the area so it was straight in to the turf and a short roll-out. Had to power up to get to the end of the runway and taxi to parking.
 
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Ste. Genevieve, MO (6mo2) 1600' grass
Glasgow, KY, Creek Side (4ky1) 1700' grass
Kirksville, MO (KIRK) 1370' grass
 
Quite a few over the years. Forget or don't know their distances. Probably one of the funnier ones I had landed on a strip in a pasture in a Cub. Taxing to turn around for take off noticed cows strolling towards the plane. Expedited that take off as I was afraid they eat the fabric lol.

Taught a guy his PPC and he wanted a Maule. He was the wasn't the best pilot and didn't have a lot plane sense, but he passed his PP check ride. So off we go to Moultrie (Maule factory) and check them out. Maule company/test pilot took us up for a demo ride, Dan Spader I think, and was totally impressed. While there we saw the turbine Maule take off, right on their ramp, climbing like a bat outa hell. Well my guy buys a Maule (M235 forget I think) and we go to getting him checked out. At around 14 hours I had to take the plane from him on a landing and he got po'd at me and dropped me as his CFI. Don't know who he used but suspected it wasn't a CFI. Eh his deal. Guy ends up ground looping it, running out of fuel w/ wife and kids in plane because he forgot how to switch tanks. Finally lucked out and got fuel flowing. After that wife refused to fly with him. Sold it and bought a Skybolt and hit tree tops with that one. He had a few other incidents I heard about. Wonder he's still with us.
 
I landed in one have of the length of a muddy pasture one time!!
Probably about 300 feet....
Did'nt take off though,,, outa gas!!!
Plane towed to a nearby airport,,, bought gas,, flown home by the owner...
true story,, feb 79,, the last solar eclipse in the pacific northwest...
It was a glorious flight,,, VFR unexpectedly into IFR,,, climb to 10,000 feet to get on top!!
I could'nt fly right side up on gauges and talk on the radio at the same time!!!
178 seconds to live,,, 4 butts in a cherokee,,, I stretched that out to 4 hours....
got some pics around her somewhere,,, I was even on the news.... got the tape...
 
2w2, 1840x30, paved. Been there in a 172, sportcruiser, and 162. Haven't taken the 182 there yet but that should be easy with flaps 40.
 
The Put in Bay island group in Lake Erie has several shorter ones.

3X5 is 1800', and 3T7 is 1852'. Both paved.

Have had the Mooney into (and out of) each of those with room to spare.
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
The Put in Bay island group in Lake Erie has several shorter ones.

3X5 is 1800', and 3T7 is 1852'. Both paved.

Have had the Mooney into (and out of) each of those with room to spare.
Click to expand...

Oh, and make sure to wave at whoever has the 3 story house with the blue roof on short final at 3T7!

2lihqo0.jpg
 
1900x25 - Placencia, Belize. It was in the 310.

The real thing with that strip was the width. I got the 310 down and stopped in half the runway, and back off the ground in half the runway. There were no obstacles. But with the width being less than the wingspan (barely the width of the mains) the tip tanks were bouncing over the brush. I had to have them measure the height of the bushes to make sure the tip tanks would clear.
 
We had a neighbor when I was growing up on the farm who was one of the real "old timers" in aviation...built a couple of airplanes, including a Heath Parasol with a Henderson motorcycle engine, stuff like that.

His first "factory" airplane was an Aeronca C-3 that he used to give rides out of the cow pasture. The cow pasture was square, and not long enough in any direction to takeoff. His procedure was to get going down one fence line, roll up onto one main and make the turn along the other fence line, and lift into ground effect. He still couldn't clear the fence, so he'd bounce it to get over the fence. He said about half the time they'd touch down on the other side of the fence before actually flying.
 
Bold in Alaska. AT the time I did it, it was listed as 700'. It now lists as 1000'. But then I have a Husky.
 
The USS Kitty Hawk.
In the interests of full disclosure, I was just a passenger in an S-2
What a rush!
 
1I9 Delphi Intercontinental (Indiana)
2898'
Touch & gos only
182P
 
Paved, probably Marlboro, 9B1, 1659'. I haven't been in there in ten years, but it had high trees to the southeast. So if you were landing on 32, you weren't touching down near the threshold. And if you were taking off from 14, you'd best not use full length.

Grass, for a public airport, probably Ansonia, CT, it was about 1,700'. Private, VT41 (Moore's Farm) in Dummerston, VT. It was also about 1,700'. It's long reverted back to farmland.
 
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