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

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

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

All the time!

Okay, there is a catch - I'm just a student pilot whose tiny number of
flights so far have been in a glider taking off and landing on an 1800 foot
grass runway. ;-)

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

"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.

On Jun 26, 1:22*pm, Jim Logajan wrote:
"Ol Shy & Bashful" wrote:

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

All the time!

Okay, there is a catch - I'm just a student pilot whose tiny number of
flights so far have been in a glider taking off and landing on an 1800 foot
grass runway. ;-)

Well, there you are. Every landing is a dead stick! When I watched
the first shuttle landing aty Edwards AFB I made an outloud
comment...."Wowww there is the ultimate deadstick landing..."
I'll wait to hear your comments the first time you land on a paved
runway. Gliders are nearly the ultimate for flying and I hope you
stick with them. What great fun

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

Don't get to anymore but used to very often, including in light twins.

All the time!

Okay, there is a catch - I'm just a student pilot whose tiny number of
flights so far have been in a glider taking off and landing on an 1800 foot
grass runway. ;-)

All the time, for the same reason. One exception - I have never landed
on anything resembling a "runway". It has always been a "field".

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)

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