Thread: Video of Short Grass Field Landing

My friend took me to his friend's private strip near New Philadelphia, Ohio in his CTLS. Coming in, he looks for his landmark which is a set of power lines, then looks for the neighbor's house. At the neighbor's house, he takes a hard left. That's when the grass strip comes into view. This little landing strip was carved out of the limestone hills by bulldozer. Phil is a very experienced commercial pilot with many many hours in large and small aircraft including helicopters. This isn't something that I'd be able to do but it was a fun ride.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gHJFo6rSeM

How long is that strip?

Hi Tip. Overall, the strip is about 1800 feet long but it has a rock outcropping at midfield which the owner discovered after he had scraped away most of the field. There is enough runway width to avoid this but one normally plans on stoping by the time it comes up. The video doesn't show it but there is a good uphill rise to the strip. Because there's tall hardwoods all around, the wind is normally not a factor so the landings are done uphill and the takeoffs are done downhill. The outcropping is steered around during takeoffs in order to use the max length of the strip. The CTLS with tundra tires is a great plane to have for this situation. The landing strip owner has a few old Champs and regularly flies the 60 hp one. All conditions have to be right when flying that old Champ to insure one gets out of the "bowl" the strip is in, according to the owner. He favors cool evenings to go flying.

Dick

Did you land - or were you shot down? Just teasing. I couldn't resist.

He, he, that's funny wlfpckrs. I seem to recall reading recently about the police investigating a complaint from a pilot who was threatened by two guys who claim his low flights disturbed a wedding reception. They threatened to shoot at the pilot.

The guy who did the landing is very good. I am very lucky to be able to fly with him in his CTLS.

Dick

Great video i think video's like this are great fun but i would hardly call a 550 mtr strip short here in UK we call 250 mtrs short and regularly land in them in the US you seem to have some fantastic big airfields

Cheers Mike

Originally Posted by micromike

Great video i think video's like this are great fun but i would hardly call a 550 mtr strip short here in UK we call 250 mtrs short and regularly land in them in the US you seem to have some fantastic big airfields

Cheers Mike

You don't see many strips in the US that are shorter than 1500 feet. If the runway is wide open without trees at the ends, 1500 feet is plenty long. In fact, 600-900 feet is do-able, but coming over high trees onto a 1500' strip can get a little more testy.

As Micromike points out, I posted this video because I enjoy the entertainment when viewing other's videos not to mention the educational value of many of these. It appears that a good portion of those who fly in Europe have difficult small fields to land in and must become very proficient at landing in narrow short grassy fields at an early stage in their flying or pay the consequences. The nice thing about flying in the States is that most everyone can find fields that are as easy or difficult as desired. Wlfpckrs comments about the "tree factor" is well taken. For this particular situation, add in the fact that those 90 foot trees are growing on high hills that encircle the runway. We actually came in thru a cutout in the trees and hills which is for the driveway to the house. Unfortunately, this cutout does not come straight in to the runway but takes a hard left when at the end of the runway, something a little easier to do in a car rather than a plane.