Brad Damm, CubCrafters VP of Sales & Marketing. “A nosewheel equipped XCub is a very easy airplane to fly that takes off shorter, lands shorter, and cruises faster than the tailwheel version. Once a pilot is in the airplane and experiences it, the advantages are obvious.”
I'm voting for 'tight but doable.' My avatar pic is my backyard strip, so I'm pretty familiar with flying off midwest grass in the middle of a flat field. I have 40' power lines about 300' off the north end, nothing off the south, but my strip is 2500'. We really only ever use half of our length, and when I am really light and trying hard I can get down to under 300' landings and 600' takeoffs, in a stock 150. A 1200' strip is tight but you should still have some margin, and if things don't work out ( hotter, heavier, X-wind, etc.) you fly to the big airport solo and pick up fuel and passengers, or land there. Less convenient for sure, but a safe out. As for burying power lines, I was quoted $100K to bury the ones to my north, and the company wasn't going to split it with me either. Needless to say, they're still up, with orange balls on them. Patrick
Some trikes get off quicker because the gear geometry allows them to rotate to a higher AOA than the equivalent tailwheel model on takeoff. The RV series is one example.
I bought my 180 when I had 140 hours total, 67 tail wheel in a home built I put together. I still consider myself low time, I’m now around 550 hours conventional gear, most of it in my 180, some in a husky, the rest in my home built. Maybe someday I can learn how to “fly tailwheel”, and someone can learn me some physics..
I take my 182 (PPONK, no other STOL mods) in and out of strips like that in New Zealand regularly. It's certainly practical. Strip condition and aircraft weight do make a big difference.
I fly a 182 and get into those length strips regularly, with wires at the ends. I wouldn't have dare tried as a new pilot. Sounds like you need a Carbon Cub. Just add power and up you go!
But to be serious for a moment. New pilot, short grass field - not worth the risk to you and your bride. Either get more land or just get a fun plane like a cub and rent when want to take wife on trips.
I agree with many here that what the book says you can do is not synonymous with what you’d enjoy doing regularly. I’d start with a plane that has very short field capability, fly that one out of your field for a while, then see how you feel about a different plane. A friend of mine has a Reims Rocket, which a C172 with 210 HP, and is based at an airport called Jesenwang just outside of Munich, Germany. The area is notoriously underserved by GA airports and this one is about 1300 ft long at 1860 msl, with a road crossing one end of the runway. It’s all he has available, but he’s flown there a long time and is used to it. When I flew there with him there was a Mooney in the hangar and various other similar planes. They can do it, but most would prefer not to if they had a choice. I also saw a Mooney at Lake Wohlford near San Diego, which is also about 1300 ft long. Would I choose to be based there with anything other than a STOL plane? No thanks.
Book landing distance in my Mooney is 1500 feet over an obstacle. A pal did it in a Mooney just like mine (actually it wasn't just like mine, his was a mess) but his landing was, shall we say, sporting. No obstacle and you're looking at about 8700 feet according to the book, but I think you're coming in behind the power curve and plopping in. Not exactly the way I like doing things. In general I'd rather not have to be on my "A" game just to get home.
I think I didn't represent my timeline correctly. This was one of the ideas on my 'long term goals list'- not something I would be trying on my XC Solo . I would certainly wait until I had the experience to pull it off- if it was realistic at any normal skill level. I would keep the plane at a local airport until that day. Baby steps. I re-measured and changed the layout a little and can get 1,800' without a lot of work, at that new angle, I will miss the creek so an easement from the farmer might actually work pretty good. I'm going to see if he might be interested in selling/leasing/easment-ing(?) me some land. Yes, I have all of the tools to make a nice strip. Dozer, backhoe, loader, 15' box blade, laser transit, grain drill. We have a pretty large farm that we lease out now but still have a lot of the toys from when we farmed it. We've built lots of roads and used to re-slope 100+ acre fields for irrigation so dirt work will not be a problem.
Yes very doable in a 182, even stock, but I would put a Sportsman STOL, VGs, MT prop and an angle of attack indicator, and the plane will be ready , and it will make it easily , just fly it light. Then we need the pilot to be ready, so train, and practice practice practice, patience is key. It will make you a better pilot anyway so its a win win situation.
I think 1,800 feet would be doable under reasonable circumstances - weight, wind, and density altitude. I'd feel much better about that than the 1,200' you initially mentioned.
Start now you have already met the most difficult condition that you must pass so begin while she's in agreement. The best time is now because it does not take away from your solo time that you are not getting. You can always buy an airplane to meet your airport and not so easy to buy an airport to meet your airplane as we have already discovered.
