Unpaved Landing areas

"JGalban via AviationKB.com" u32749@uwe wrote in message
news:8644438bd8ae6@uwe...
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 :

I agree completely. A well maintained turf runway is no problem. It's the
unmaintained ones that are hard on aircraft. Naturally unmaintained paved
runways are a problem too, but there aren't as many.


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.

I've got probably 200 or so take-offs and landings on turf fields. The
number of them that I miss can be counted on one hand. Gastons, Cedar
Mills, and McGehee's come to mind, but as I said, I can always go with
someone else if I want to and I rent a tailwheel 3-4 times per year anyway.

On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:28:24 GMT, "Mike" wrote:

Naturally unmaintained paved
runways are a problem too, but there aren't as many.

Actually, I find it just the opposite. I know of three grass runways,
all of them smooth as could be. And the two paved runways I most often
fly to are terribly rough. Indeed, one of them is blacklisted by the
home airfield because it's too hard on tailwheels.

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com

On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:19:44 +0000 (UTC), 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.

My home field (7B3 Hampton NH) is grass, and I'm insured!

It's certainly true that most of the airports I can reach are paved,
but 2B2 Plum Island MA has a grass runway at an angle to the tarmac. I
choose it if I possibly can because it's in much better shape than the
asphalt.


Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com

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
We do all the time, we've never had a problem getting the "no soft
field" restriction removed. The field we fly into is a comfy 3,000 ft,
but we never use that much.

Margy

"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, 1:22*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

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".

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.

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

Wonderful question. I land on grass airfields quite often. A favorite
one is locate rather close to me anyway. http://cedarmills.com/airfield.htm.

I learned on 1800' less than paved airport south of Kansas City, MO a
long time ago. Never found that to be short. One time when I moved to
the Boston, MA area I checked out at the Bedford airport and, at that
time, no rental plane could land at a airport less than 2600' I think.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI

Ross wrote in
:

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

Wonderful question. I land on grass airfields quite often. A favorite
one is locate rather close to me anyway.
http://cedarmills.com/airfield.htm.

I learned on 1800' less than paved airport south of Kansas City, MO a
long time ago. Never found that to be short. One time when I moved to
the Boston, MA area I checked out at the Bedford airport and, at that
time, no rental plane could land at a airport less than 2600' I think.


Several years ago I looked into rentals at PAO. Every club I looked at
had, at that time (but not now), a rule restricting club members to landing
on paved runways of 3,000' or longer. PAO's runway is only 2,443'. Where
did they expect pilots to return the aircraft at the conclusion of their
rental?

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

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