Flight school train on grass strip?

A friend has a private grass strip in the foothills. Been a few days since I've been up that way. Here's a photo I took while sitting at the table eating breakfast:

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Daleandee said:
Not a flight school but a great instructor and a nice grass field with a couple of airplanes for various types of training. Beautiful location:

Blue Ridge Sport Flight

Learn to fly at Hendersonville Airport with one of the areas most experienced instructors. Specializing in tailwheel training in a 1946 Aeronca Champ. Private Pilot, Instrument, Commercial, CFI, and ATP training in our fleet of 7 aircraft.
blueridgesportflight.com
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Plus one for Blue Ridge sport flight, I did his combined PP/Instrument course back in 2018, real nice guy and knows his stuff.

Didn't even land on pavement until 20 hours in lol.
 
Eric S said:
Plus one for Blue Ridge sport flight, I did his combined PP/Instrument course back in 2018, real nice guy and knows his stuff.

Didn't even land on pavement until 20 hours in lol.
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Yulp, I did my tailwheel training there in 2011. Fun little grass strip ...
 
I’m trying to remember the FBO rental rules from the different places I’ve used. Pretty sure one place listed 3-4 runways as “approved” and one just said “any public use airport”. But in no case were gravel operations allowed.
 
FastEddieB said:
I think it’s borderline negligent to sign off a Private Pilot applicant with only simulated soft field experience.
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When I was a CFI, our flight school owners absolutely refused to allow us to show PPL students a real grass field even once. It was a real shame as we had a long, safe grass strip just 20nm away.

Fortunately the office manager would keep an eye out for grass-stained tires and remind us to go "wash the tires" before the owners got there.
 
GeorgeC said:
https://chesapeakesportpilot.com/ has been training at 3W3 while W29 has been getting repavef
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ROBUC said:
When I was a CFI, our flight school owners absolutely refused to allow us to show PPL students a real grass field even once. It was a real shame as we had a long, safe grass strip just 20nm away.

Fortunately the office manager would keep an eye out for grass-stained tires and remind us to go "wash the tires" before the owners got there.
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Wet spring conditions? Usually tires not an issue but leaves in the tailwheel springs could be a dead giveaway!
 
Shannon Airport KEZF in Fredericksburg VA has a grass runway and a paved runway. JLS Aviation has a flight school there. Most of the techniques you use on grass can and will be taught on pavement because it is easier on the airframe, then transition to grass is a minor change. Hope this helps.
 
William Pete Hodges said:
Shannon Airport KEZF in Fredericksburg VA has a grass runway and a paved runway. JLS Aviation has a flight school there. Most of the techniques you use on grass can and will be taught on pavement because it is easier on the airframe, then transition to grass is a minor change. Hope this helps.
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Completely contrary to my experience - unless wickedly dry and rutted, grass is smooth and forgiving, whereas pavement is much less so. You can’t tickle the tires with pavement as you gently set her down. And you can’t flat a tire on grass when a student lands with the brakes on.

That said, a big heavy tricycle gear aircraft on grass can be more easily damaged with the 400-600# weight on the nosewheel if the student or pilot can’t keep the nose off the ground when landing and until nearly stopped. Grass is both undulating and small ruts may amplify the loads on the nose strut. Perhaps that is what you are referring to as easier on the airframe.
 
I was on downwind for 23 at FDK doing my tailwheel transition and the instructor pulled the mixture and asked what I was going to do. I said land on 30 (no other traffic), he says "put it on the grass, it will be more realistic." (There's a grass strip parallel to 30, primarily for gliders).
 
FastEddieB said:
Are there no grass strips within a reasonable distance? A student’s long crosscountry might include one of those.
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Out here growing and maintaining grass is a challenge. There are some cool dirt strips, but the club I fly with won't allow me to take any of the rentals to them.
 
Flying out of central Minnesota, grass strip operations were certainly part of our Private curriculum.
 
I require all my primary students to go into a grass strip. And I usually do it by pulling the power in the middle of a training flight and letting them find it and land. This of course is at an appropriate phase of their training. BTW a pilot will never truly understand the nuances of the ACS required soft field take off and landing if it's only done on a paved runway. (Kind of like an instrument instructor/school not willing to train in actual.)
 
MauleSkinner said:
Probably even if they don’t actually operate from a soft field.
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Don't disagree. But feeling the resistance of even slightly long grass shows the need to get up in ground effect if you ever want to accelerate. Also if there are low spots, they better get the idea of why you don't stop when you're taxiing. It's been an eye opener to my students when comparing the same technique on paved runways and taxiways.
 
I learned all that on my own out flying by my self after getting my PPL.
I knew enough to get out of flight school and not kill my self.
I bought a 172 and started flying it as much as I could. 4-6 days a week.

It was very rewarding and fun each time I got better.
I only landed on grass twice during PPL training and it was on the same day and a blurr because it was during a stage check.

I had 800 hours before I started flying with a new friend who is a standards check airman and he fine tuned what I learned on my own. like I already said, once you learn to land you can land on anything. Imo
I am a lucky guy.
Grass field training would concern me if you would have enough radio training especially if your instructor does not take you to controlled airport often.
 
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