In article ,
Marty Shapiro wrote:

Orval Fairbairn wrote in
news
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_..._CA_SanBernard
ino_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.


Orval -

Had Columbia (O22) completed their re-sodding of 11/29 before you left
the Bay area? After they finished, it was just like your description of
Leeward Air Ranch.

I never landed on 11.29 at Columbia -- I always used the paved runway.
There used to be an "air snake" there that would grab the unwary.

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