Unpaved Landing areas

How often do you get to land or take off from something other than a
paved runway? The current books don't give it much thought and I
suspect because the writers are so new at this aviation thing, they
have little or no experience on anything but paved runways.
Part of the reason for this post was the resistance to more than a few
to not land on a great 2000' grass strip that has an Interstate on one
end, and trees on the other. I have no idea why they are afraid to
land on this strip. There are at least three grass strips of 2000'
length in this area and some that are longer (one is about 4000').
What has your experience been? I have no idea how much time I have
operating off strips of 1200' or less, grass, gravel, sand, etc and no
problems. Must be at least thousands of them, both in terms of take
off and landings as well as hours.
Ol S&B

In article
,
"Ol Shy & Bashful" wrote:

How often do you get to land or take off from something other than a
paved runway? The current books don't give it much thought and I
suspect because the writers are so new at this aviation thing, they
have little or no experience on anything but paved runways.
Part of the reason for this post was the resistance to more than a few
to not land on a great 2000' grass strip that has an Interstate on one
end, and trees on the other. I have no idea why they are afraid to
land on this strip. There are at least three grass strips of 2000'
length in this area and some that are longer (one is about 4000').
What has your experience been? I have no idea how much time I have
operating off strips of 1200' or less, grass, gravel, sand, etc and no
problems. Must be at least thousands of them, both in terms of take
off and landings as well as hours.
Ol S&B

I used to as often as I could.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flypics/ghmidfinal.jpg

Dale wrote:
In article
,
"Ol Shy & Bashful" wrote:

How often do you get to land or take off from something other than a
paved runway? The current books don't give it much thought and I
suspect because the writers are so new at this aviation thing, they
have little or no experience on anything but paved runways.
Part of the reason for this post was the resistance to more than a few
to not land on a great 2000' grass strip that has an Interstate on one
end, and trees on the other. I have no idea why they are afraid to
land on this strip. There are at least three grass strips of 2000'
length in this area and some that are longer (one is about 4000').
What has your experience been? I have no idea how much time I have
operating off strips of 1200' or less, grass, gravel, sand, etc and no
problems. Must be at least thousands of them, both in terms of take
off and landings as well as hours.
Ol S&B

I used to as often as I could.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flypics/ghmidfinal.jpg

OH, wow.!

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI

Ol Shy & Bashful wrote:
How often do you get to land or take off from something other than a
paved runway?

Hardly ever. Insurance policies increasingly prohibit it.

-c

On Jun 26, 1:19*pm, gatt wrote:
Ol Shy & Bashful wrote:

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

Hardly ever. Insurance policies increasingly prohibit it.

-c

Ah...that is part of the problem and why? Lack of experience on the
parts of the instructors who train pilots to operate of such strips?
And, why is that? Has to be an accident rate caused by pilots who had
no idea what in hell they were doing? What is happening to the
experienced guys who have a hard time landing on paved runways and
controlled airports? Are we nearing extinction?
Amazed at the rapid response to this post

Ol Shy & Bashful wrote:
On Jun 26, 1:19 pm, gatt wrote:

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

Hardly ever. Insurance policies increasingly prohibit it.

Ah...that is part of the problem and why? Lack of experience on the
parts of the instructors who train pilots to operate of such strips?

Maybe, I don't know. I did quite a few grass-strip landings with my
instructor during primary training. It wasn't until after I started
renting from various FBOs that I ran into the "no soft-field landings"
policy.

It's hard for me to blame the instructors; the ones I know are seasoned
pilots (I've avoided the CFI mills so far) who almost certainly wouldn't
have a problem. Sure wouldn't bother me to do them, either.

-c

"gatt" wrote in message
...
Ol Shy & Bashful wrote:
On Jun 26, 1:19 pm, gatt wrote:

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

Hardly ever. Insurance policies increasingly prohibit it.

Ah...that is part of the problem and why? Lack of experience on the
parts of the instructors who train pilots to operate of such strips?

Maybe, I don't know. I did quite a few grass-strip landings with my
instructor during primary training. It wasn't until after I started
renting from various FBOs that I ran into the "no soft-field landings"
policy.


Is "no soft fields" the same as "no unpaved fields"? I could make a good
argument that it isn't.

-c

"gatt" wrote in message
...
Ol Shy & Bashful wrote:
How often do you get to land or take off from something other than a
paved runway?

Hardly ever. Insurance policies increasingly prohibit it.

Such is the case with my insurance. I suppose I could probably pay more for
the privelege, but there's not that many in which I care to land and the
wear and tear to my nosewheel plane just isn't worth it. Besides I can
always hitch a ride with a tailwheel buddy or rent a Citabria if I have a
turf runway itch I need to scratch.

Mike wrote:
Such is the case with my insurance. I suppose I could probably pay more for
the privelege, but there's not that many in which I care to land and the
wear and tear to my nosewheel plane just isn't worth it. Besides I can
always hitch a ride with a tailwheel buddy or rent a Citabria if I have a
turf runway itch I need to scratch.

Strange. I've never had a policy that prohibited unpaved runways and I've
been buying 'em since 1990. Out here in the west, a large number of public
use airports have unpaved runways.

Unpaved doesn't necessarily mean wear and tear on the nosewheel. I've been
landing my Cherokee on strips like these for more than a dozen yrs. and have
never had any nosegear problems :

http://members.cox.net/jgalban/12f70900.jpg
http://members.cox.net/jgalban/1c180890.jpg
http://members.cox.net/jgalban/1ed9bf40.jpg
http://members.cox.net/jgalban/1fa9bf40.jpg
http://members.cox.net/jgalban/13e15900.jpg

There are a lot of very unique unpaved public airports in the country.
Your missing out.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

--
Message posted via http://www.aviationkb.com

Unpaved doesn't necessarily mean wear and tear on the nosewheel. I've
been
landing my Cherokee on strips like these for more than a dozen yrs. and
have
never had any nosegear problems :

http://members.cox.net/jgalban/12f70900.jpg

That runway looks better marked than some of the "paved" runways I used...

I must admit that the only runways I use nowadays are simulated (can I
argue that they are "not paved" ;-) ). But back when Jimmy Carter was still
in office, I flew off grass regularly.

I assume that at least some people still do - when I look at the local
charts, there are still plenty of small grass strips around.

Note: I still do get to ride in real life on occasion, but I am so rusty
that there is no way I would attempt to land something like the T-18 or the
Pitts that I get rides in - I did attempt a takeoff in the T-18 at Eau
Claire WI a few years back - good thing the runway was 150 feet wide - I
needed every inch.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
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