In article ,
Larry Dighera wrote:

On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:06:07 -0700 (PDT), "Ol Shy & Bashful"
wrote in
:

How often do you get to land or take off from something other than a
paved runway?

Not very often.

Does this count?
http://members.tripod.com/airfields_...oy_CA_02_w.jpg
http://members.tripod.com/airfields_...ernardino_SE.h
tm#amboy

I used to fly my Johnson Rocket out of Frazier Lake, which is the only
irrigated sod airport in California. During the winter it got too soggy
and we used the parallel (paved) 30 ft wide taxiway. That got really
sporting with a 90 deg crosswind!

The best sod I have ever flown into is Leeward Air Ranch, in FL --
smooth as a putting green! I landed there and didn't know I had touched
down until the plane started decelerating on its own.

The hairiest was at Eustis, FL, when I landed there a couple of days
after some heavy rains. The grass was about 6 in. high. Touchdown
deceleration was FAST! It took a fair amount of power to taxi.

I wasn't sure we could take off, but decided to use full flaps to
produce max lift. I figured that, if I could rotate, it would fly; if
not, we had 3000 ft to play with. I must have left ruts on the
threshold, but got rotated and flew out.

--
Remove _'s from email address to talk to me.