Shortest strip you've flown from

I always enjoyed short dirt strips. But the real fun comes when there is no straight final approach to that strip so landing is made while in the turn. Then the strip has at least a 45 degree turn in the middle of it to bring the pucker factor up a little.

I have been to several strips in Alaska that followed the turn in the river or had a turn in it because there wasn't any flat area to make a straight strip.

Then again, the off airport landing distances were determined while over flying the area I wanted to land.

One time someone asked us to check out his landing area. The chief pilot and myself took off in a 207 to check it out. We found a clearing, looked it over, then landed. We taxied up to where we saw some people working. They asked us what was wrong, and the cp said we were here to check out the landing area.

Hmmmm.... we don't have a landing area.

Is this Mr. Smiths land?

No, his land is over that way next to the river. We just cleared this area to build a cabin here..... Ooops...
 
River ops on skis make skidding turns a requirement. Chop and drop over 120' trees to a narrow creek that requires the pilot do a controlled skid as the plane decelerates through the curve. Fun stuff but taking off with a skidding turn is even better.

Lake Hood strip is 2100' long. I've never seen the far half. Once we had a drunk drive a car on the runway so they sent me to 33 at Anch International. 10,000' plus. Holy crap.... that was intimidating!
 
Stewartb said:
Once we had a drunk drive a car on the runway so they sent me to 33 at Anch International. 10,000' plus. Holy crap.... that was intimidating!
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:lol::lol: I know the feeling..... which part of the runway do you want me to land on..??? My worst landings occur on long and wide runways...
 
No idea how long it was, but it was a golf course after the engine quit due to a vapor lock. Was invited into the club bar for a (soft) drink while I waited for the engine to cool down. As I walked into the bar I was greeted with a concerted yell of "Has he paid his green fees?"
 
I spent 8 years as a bush pilot in Alaska, after retiring from the Air Force. Loved it- met and married my wife there! I flew everything from 'vans to 406's to Twotters to 1900's on the larger side, to Super Cubs and Beavers, C206/C207, Maules...probably more I've forgotten. Lots of really short strips, I used to love a place called Eek. (really) It had a really short runway on the edge of a cliff, really made the chuchakos scream, lol. They've lengthened the runway now, I think it's 3200'. It used to be 1400 x 35 with 900 usable, gravel in summer, ice covered gravel in winter. Not my shortest, but the most fun. Shortest would probably be about a 400' creek bed we used to use in the Super Cub, to get hunters in.
 
Stephanie B said:
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.
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I work about 5 minutes from 9B1 and I pass by it every day, but I've never actually flown out of there. Two of the places I've rented from didn't allow it and 3rd did but I wasn't comfortable with a runway that short. It's closing forever at the end of this month. Here's what it looks like when I drive by:
9b1.png
 
Eagledriver65th said:
I spent 8 years as a bush pilot in Alaska, after retiring from the Air Force. Loved it- met and married my wife there! I flew everything from 'vans to 406's to Twotters to 1900's on the larger side, to Super Cubs and Beavers, C206/C207, Maules...probably more I've forgotten. Lots of really short strips, I used to love a place called Eek. (really) It had a really short runway on the edge of a cliff, really made the chuchakos scream, lol. They've lengthened the runway now, I think it's 3200'. It used to be 1400 x 35 with 900 usable, gravel in summer, ice covered gravel in winter. Not my shortest, but the most fun. Shortest would probably be about a 400' creek bed we used to use in the Super Cub, to get hunters in.
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Eek Alaska! Been there many times, albeit to the new runway. I have the same last name as half the people in that village, they thought it was pretty funny.
 
Eagledriver65th said:
I spent 8 years as a bush pilot in Alaska, after retiring from the Air Force. Loved it- met and married my wife there! I flew everything from 'vans to 406's to Twotters to 1900's on the larger side, to Super Cubs and Beavers, C206/C207, Maules...probably more I've forgotten. Lots of really short strips, I used to love a place called Eek. (really) It had a really short runway on the edge of a cliff, really made the chuchakos scream, lol. They've lengthened the runway now, I think it's 3200'. It used to be 1400 x 35 with 900 usable, gravel in summer, ice covered gravel in winter. Not my shortest, but the most fun. Shortest would probably be about a 400' creek bed we used to use in the Super Cub, to get hunters in.
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Back then Eek was appropriately named.....

I enjoyed getting in ground effect and going off the cliff. Until the day I lost fuel pressure right over the cliff.
 
Zeldman said:
Back then Eek was appropriately named.....

I enjoyed getting in ground effect and going off the cliff. Until the day I lost fuel pressure right over the cliff.
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The only time I have ever had a runaway prop was right after liftoff at Eek, in a 406, coming out of there really overweight (typical bush day). What a perfect place for such a thing to happen. That was 25 years ago and I think my knees are still shaking.
 
Well there was that cute strip north of Little Rock...
 
Eagledriver65th said:
The only time I have ever had a runaway prop was right after liftoff at Eek, in a 406, coming out of there really overweight (typical bush day). What a perfect place for such a thing to happen. That was 25 years ago and I think my knees are still shaking.
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What's a runaway prop?
 
A runaway prop is where the blades go into low pitch due to a failure of a component (like the governor)- RPM's go out of limits, and the only solution is to pull power back to keep it from shedding blades- which means you will be developing little or no thrust on that side. In some cases the hub is not being oiled in this condition and the chance of shedding a blade is even higher. If you do lose a blade, vibration can cause the engine to fall off the mounts or even failure of the main spar in severe cases. It isn't a pleasant place to be.
 
My nephew flies a super hornet off a "strip" that is less than 1,000 ft, while said strip is moving and shaking.
 
Yes, those Navy guys are nuts! Of course, we AF jocks can whip the pants off of them in a knife fight, because they're too busy learning to land on a boat to bother with fighting skills. :)
 
Eagledriver65th said:
Yes, those Navy guys are nuts! Of course, we AF jocks can whip the pants off of them in a knife fight, because they're too busy learning to land on a boat to bother with fighting skills. :)
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Why exactly do you want the pants off of the navy guys? Not that there is anything wrong with that...
 
I always tell guys that the 400' STOL practice they do on 3000' runways looks a lot different than landing on a 400' piece of dirt that has a cut bank of a river on both ends. To do an approach to a ship that's moving? That's got to be a crap-ton harder yet, and those guys aren't driving light little Supercubs. My hat's off to you Navy guys. :thumbsup:
 
MassPilot said:
I work about 5 minutes from 9B1 and I pass by it every day, but I've never actually flown out of there. Two of the places I've rented from didn't allow it and 3rd did but I wasn't comfortable with a runway that short. It's closing forever at the end of this month. Here's what it looks like when I drive by:
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too bad its closing. I haven't been there yet. maybe I can make a pit stop sunday coming back from simsbury, just to say Ive landed there!

My shortest strip is 7B3 Hampton, NH. I trained and fly out of there currently. 2100' both paved and grass.
 
Sheep camp. 60 mile east of the dirt strip at Denali, 600' +-
 

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Wrench978 said:
too bad its closing. I haven't been there yet. maybe I can make a pit stop sunday coming back from simsbury, just to say Ive landed there!
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It's privately owned. Apparently it's the oldest privately owned airport in the country. It was owned by a husband and wife but the husband died a couple years ago. The wife was not interested in continuing to own and run the airport and decided to sell it. Apparently she tried very hard to sell it to someone that would keep it as an airport but there were no takers. Of course there were tons of offers from real estate developers and she ended up selling it to one.
 
MassPilot said:
It's privately owned. Apparently it's the oldest privately owned airport in the country. It was owned by a husband and wife but the husband died a couple years ago. The wife was not interested in continuing to own and run the airport and decided to sell it. Apparently she tried very hard to sell it to someone that would keep it as an airport but there were no takers. Of course there were tons of offers from real estate developers and she ended up selling it to one.
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yeah, she wanted 3 million... I can't imagine too many people itching to spend that kind of money on a runway that small...
 
Honestly, of all of the things left on my bucket list, flying off of and trapping back on a carrier is #1. I pick on Navy because it's Air Force tradition, of course, but I am supremely jealous. :)
 
AdamZ said:
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
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OB8 Elizabeth field.

Landed on the 1790' paved runway in a 172 on my Flight Review to get certified in short field ops.
 
Cedar Key, Florida KCDK, with the displaced threshold it was under 2,000ft can't remember the exact number
 
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