How Often are grass runway used, when there is a paved runway?
- Thread starter aeronav
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Clip4
Final Approach
Not as boring as flying a castrated war plane. Detuned, no weapons.
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flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
Still has way more personality than a TBM... And I love the TBM.
ebetancourt
Line Up and Wait
Lots to learn about grass runways. Aside from soft, muddy, etc. grass length will affect landing a little and takeoff a lot. If not well marked it can be difficult to find and difficult to align with when it and the surrounding field are mown. Very little traction when wet usually.
Kansas Flyer
Pre-takeoff checklist
The type of grass matters as well. Bermuda is very draggy compared to fescue unless its cut pretty short.
Hacker
Pre-takeoff checklist
De gustibus non disputandum est.
kgruber
Final Approach
If you have Alaska 26-30" tundra tires............every time you land on pavement, about $10 of rubber is scraped off. These types prefer grass.
The first time I landed ever on pavement was on the way to Oregon to meet my DE for Private, in Wally's Taylorcraft!!
The first time I landed ever on pavement was on the way to Oregon to meet my DE for Private, in Wally's Taylorcraft!!
James331
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Eric Stoltz
Line Up and Wait
When I lived in Lead, SD I used the grass runway in Spearfish, SD for about 1/2 of my flying. Loved the grass...
I soloed my first student on those, fantastic, smooth, beautiful grass runwayS.
Yeah but, itsa FU4, (from VFM-122, no less) noodered or not.... (will fly a TBM for money, however)
AKBill
En-Route
Correct I should have said runways,,,,
Lachlan
En-Route
He’s been around a while. What’s the hurry? His first week of work he actually took a day off, and I’ll bet ya 10 bucks he went flying.
midlifeflyer
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Fly
I used to fly in to SYF regularly in June for their Stearman Fly-In weekend. Almost literally, everyone, except those with rentals prohibiting it, used the immaculate grass runways in preference to the paved one. It was the first time i ever landed on a grass strip and it was a non-event.
Side story: the place I rented from was one of the few which permitted lading on certain unimproved runways after a "ground checkout" with the chief flight instructor. One of the questions asked was, what kind of landing do you anticipate? My answer was "soft field." His response, semi-tongue-in-cheek was, "if you need to do a soft field landing, we don't want you landing there." He was right. Landing on the grass there was never more than a normal landing, although I kept the stick back throughout the rollout and taxi.
Clip4
Final Approach
Yea, but he is rather busy to be poking.
Lachlan
En-Route
deyoung
Line Up and Wait
I wouldn't say I'm scared of them, but I am cautious of them, and would generally choose the paved as a result unless the winds were more than I was comfortable with.
Why? Simply because I have no experience on them. They are an unknown to me, and therefore something to be treated with caution until I have experience.
From the other comments here it certainly seems like I'm being unnecessarily conservative, so that's good to know... but I try to arrange things so that most surprises are good ones.
Matthew
Touchdown! Greaser!
Not a bad idea. Not all grass rwys are created equal. Even if you do get familiar with the way they feel, they can be quite different from airport to airport. Gravel can get kicked up on some, there can be ruts in others. In very dry weather, cracks can form that might cause problems. Lots of variations.
Even the same grass runway can be different from day to day, dry and bumpy one day, wet and squishy another day.
bluerooster
Pattern Altitude
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shorty
My very first landing and takeoff on grass, was for the recent eclipse. We flew to Tripletree in my Cherokee.
Of course that runway is longer than most grass runways, and quite wide. When we left, it was from mid field, little bit longer takeoff roll, but a non event.
Of course that runway is longer than most grass runways, and quite wide. When we left, it was from mid field, little bit longer takeoff roll, but a non event.