Cavanaugh Bay
Flew into Cavanaugh Bay this past Monday (Aug 24) in my RV7A. First time landing on turf in this airplane. The airstrip was in good condition and even better after I did a FOD walk later and tried to remove every pebble larger than a large pea from the main track. For those who haven't flown in to Cavanaugh Bay before, its helpful to watch some YuuTube videos of other pilots flying in first. You don't really see the airstrip until you get close. It's plenty long enough and smooth enough. As previously mentioned here, the uphill incline can catch you off-guard on a three wheel landing if you're not careful.
For me a bigger challenge was taking off the next morning (early). There were two young families camping next to me and their babies cried most of the night. So sleep was scarce. Allan, the caretaker, said this was the most small children he'd ever had camping at once (5 under the age of 5). Just my luck, I suppose. Anyway, I couldn't wait to get out of there (not a safe mindset, I know). The runway sprinklers come on at 4:30 AM and run for three hours. The spray pattern pretty much covers the pretty green runway. I didn't bother to take my wheel pants off and have about 1.75" tire clearance below the edge of the wheelpants in my 7A. I taxied out at dawn (6:00 AM) with runway sprinklers running full throttle. I'd asked Allan to shut them down but he indicated they were on a timer program and that, if I stayed in the middle of the runway, I should be okay. My plane literally got washed by the sprinklers taxiing to the end of the runway for takeoff. I could barely see out of the windshield/canopy. The runway was pretty soggy and I was concerned my wheel pants would scrape bottom impeding takeoff roll. After a short runup to check engine performance I pushed in the throttle and tried to stay on centerline (there is no centerline though). The sprinklers didn't make visibility easy and my takeoff roll was slower than I would have liked. Got the nosewheel off as soon as I could but the mains seemed to be slugging it out in the wet sod. At about half way down the runway, I was still on the ground before the main wheels lifted off. Then the stall warning horn blared and I was still getting showered with water from the sprinklers. At the end of runway 33 there are one or two trees and a small house you have to clear before you're over the lake. They were approaching rapidly with the stall horn still sounding. I had no choice but to drop the nose to gain speed/lift. I did and the plane responded and I just cleared the tree by a few feet. Soaring out over the lake was beautiful...for more reasons than just the scenery. Dumb? Yep. Decision-making heavily affected by external factors (babies crying most of the night, parents not considering the effects of their children on other campers/pilots, my subsequent "get out of there itis"). Glad I didn't take my significant other, the extra weight would have resulted in a different outcome although I hope I would have made wiser decisions in that case. My advice: wait until later in the morning to take-off after runway has dried out somewhat; call Allan ahead of time on the day of your planned arrival to see how many other campers are already there; bring ear plugs!
A postscript...a Mooney flew in and out the day of my arrival at Cavanaugh Bay. This was this pilot's first time in and out, also. He overflew the airfield a couple times before landing. His landing was a bit here and there but what counts is how you place your gear on the ground and he got that done. On take off he took the recommended (for tricycle gear planes) run down runway 33, having backed up to the very end of the runway for the longest possible roll. He only had one passenger and the runway was dry and firm in the late afternoon/evening. He didn't have a headwind, probably a bit of a tailwind in which case taking off runway 15 might be considered though I was told that RVs (esp A- models) should take off on runway 33. Seems this would apply to Mooneys as well, though not sure. In any case, he used ALL of the runway, and split the two trees at the end of the runway (he didn't stay on centerline, but veered slightly to the right where there are two trees you have to clear if you stray to the east on takeoff) by dropping a wing and dividing them at about a 45-50 degree angle (in a knife edge pass). Then he and his passenger flew out over the beautiful lake.
Both take-offs heavily affected by virgin pilots to this airfield. In both cases, though not picture perfect, pilots did the right thing when it mattered (drop nose despite circumstances to gather airspeed to climb; split the trees by momentarily dropping a wing). Lessons learned make better pilots.
Having said all this, Cavanaugh Bay is a beautiful spot. The runway is in great shape (unless you leave too early in the day as I did), in fact its in such good shape that some pilots think nothing of flying their entire families, babies included, in for the experience!