First Real Soft-Field Landing

And when they finished that test series, they bolted on a full authority digital engine controller and, yep, you guessed it: they tested the Smart Motor Fokker.

:D

Practicing single-engine ops in the Dead Motor Fokker?
 
Snow is slippery and will increase your landing distance until it gets deep enough to shorten it. Even a few inches of snow will lengthen you takeoff roll quite a bit...
 
17 year pilot with zero grass landings. Lots of dirt runways and roads down in Baja. Even a sand bar runway. (and no I'm not a drug runner)
 
This is too cool! This was the return leg when we had a whopping 75 or so knots ground speed. 116 on the way down was decent though.

Didn't know if you wanted me to post the one going there, which is why I elected to post the one going home. Too bad you can't log it as XC - it was less than 50nm right?
 
according to others, it seems as though it's not common to receive actual IFR, grass, and controlled/uncontrolled experience in training. i guess?
 
Our club's insurance prohibits non-paved runways, too. All of our planes, not just the Arrow. And the one time somebody violated that he had a prop strike on a virtually brand new engine. The club leadership was not amused.

I used to drive past the entrance to Faizier Lake often when I worked in Silicon Valley. We built an EMC lab north of Hollister and the road past the airpark was right on the way. Didn't fly in those days.
 
My first landing on a soft field, it was really soft, was on my PPL check ride. It was a desert sand runway. The flying Gods were smiling on me that day, I pulled it off like I actually knew what I was doing. I kept the nose wheel off the runway the entire length.

I will be bragging about this the rest of my life. Pilots see me approaching the FBO, scatter like I have the plague.

-John
 
Didn't know if you wanted me to post the one going there, which is why I elected to post the one going home. Too bad you can't log it as XC - it was less than 50nm right?
Ha, ha, you can post anything you want, I don't mind. It sure wouldn't be as direct as going home, I'm sure :rofl:. And it was less than 50nm.
 
I've landed on "grass" that almost shook my teeth out, and left bits of foam rubber insulation from behind the panel all over the floor. But then again, it's Colorado... the grass is mostly brown unless you water it. :)

That's because you were in Colorado.....the ground under the grass is a bunch of rocks.


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according to others, it seems as though it's not common to receive actual IFR, grass, and controlled/uncontrolled experience in training. i guess?

Depends a lot on location. Insurance restrictions aside, there are plenty of grass strips all over the Eastern US. In the Southwest....not so much. Only a couple of unpaved strips in SoCal and they are rocks and gravel....not the kind of place I would want to take an airplane unless I was getting paid to do it.



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Not going to go land at the Chicken Strip and hop in the hot tub, eh?

 
Not going to go land at the Chicken Strip and hop in the hot tub, eh?


Problem is I had the 170 freshly painted after I bought it......new paint job and gravel.....not such a good combo.



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according to others, it seems as though it's not common to receive actual IFR, grass, and controlled/uncontrolled experience in training. i guess?
Maybe I'm just crazy but all of my private students receive the above if I can figure out a way to get it in. Which I've so far always managed to do.

I also make sure they see actual light gun signals from tower before they solo. If someone has never seen them I also do that during flight reviews.
 
I agree with Henning, a grass strip is not truly a "soft field".

There are no absolutes. They CAN truly be a soft field, depending on conditions. EXPECT it to be soft and you should always be fine.
 
My current CFI says he prefers we do the instrument training in IMC rather than with the foggles. I'm hoping for a couple of low overcast days once he's back from his fishing trip.
 
Too bad you can't log it as XC - it was less than 50nm right?

There is no distance requirement for logging XC. The (varying) distance requirements only come into play when you want to apply that XC time against a rating.

Sometimes you can log the time as cross country, but not count it towards a a particular rating. Sometimes you can log it and count it. Sometimes you can't log it but can count it against a rating.

But.

This is soft. You can see how long the tracks from the main gear are...

104%2520Northway4%2520crop.jpg
 
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Ha, ha, you can post anything you want, I don't mind. It sure wouldn't be as direct as going home, I'm sure :rofl:. And it was less than 50nm.

OK if you say so.

This was our "scenic route" on the way to the field. Of course, we knew EXACTLY where it was the whole time.

7345863270_1f38e2a625_b.jpg
 
OK if you say so.

This was our "scenic route" on the way to the field. Of course, we knew EXACTLY where it was the whole time.

7345863270_1f38e2a625_b.jpg
Love that program. It actually doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. Just a big eight to the southeast, then back over midfield and a left 180 turn to enter the 45 for the right downwind.
And the scenic part? It was planned all along :lol:.
 
Love that program. It actually doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. Just a big eight to the southeast, then back over midfield and a left 180 turn to enter the 45 for the right downwind.
And the scenic part? It was planned all along :lol:.

You can use it on your iPhone. Just go to the app store. It is free. Then when you fly without me put the iPhone on the dash, hit "start" and that's it. Later go to the website to view using a computer with the Google Earth plug-in installed.
 
Love that program. It actually doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. Just a big eight to the southeast, then back over midfield and a left 180 turn to enter the 45 for the right downwind.
And the scenic part? It was planned all along :lol:.

Hmmm, a slow climbing 360 for help seeing things? Wonder who thought of that idea....
 
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