David-aviator
Well Known Member
I was sitting on our back porch this morning with a first cup of coffee admiring my wife's mini botanical garden (she is a master gardener and is in a constant process of taming our 3 acres in the country) when I heard the distinct sound of an approaching RV. It did not take long and the -4 or -8 was in sight. Someone out on a dawn patrol. The airplane appeared to be mostly unpainted and was zipping along in typical RV fashion - not slow. 
During the past 14 days, it rained about 10 around here. Our clay based turf is very water soaked and it has been a mess trying to keep the grass down to a reasonable level, at present it is 4-5", we cut it on Friday leaving rooster tails of water behind the cutting machines and piles of cut grass for the effort.
Yesterday, a neighbor tried to launch his rag wing, Rotax 912 powered ultra light. The machine would not get up enough speed to fly, there was so much drag with the grass and wet soil. He went off the end of 2200' of runway after an abort but did not damage the airplane. Not good. I was really primed to fly, not having been up in over 2 weeks.
I walked the runway and decided, the RV can handle this situation and decided to have a go at it. As it turned out, the beast was off the ground in about 1200' with 10 degrees flaps and nearly full aft stick to keep the NG out of the mess below. This with the Catto turning at 2200 rpm. A CS prop would have made the take off a non event.
This morning I walked the runway again to check the nearly nil braking action on landing. Yep, it was wet. The clay acted like a greased pig, the tires were in a skid for a hundred feet or so at the end of the roll out. Fortunately, the long grass provided plenty of drag and the airplane made a turn off at 1500' after clearing the tall trees on the approach. The key here again is approach speed. Anything over 60 knots, and it would have had a different out come. And on roll out, one has to keep rolling until up on to one of our paved roads. To stop on the turf is to ask for a tow.
Our hard surface project has been approved by the owners and will get under way as soon as things dry out. I figure we need about 3 weeks of no rain before they can start....3 days now without rain an counting.
During the past 14 days, it rained about 10 around here. Our clay based turf is very water soaked and it has been a mess trying to keep the grass down to a reasonable level, at present it is 4-5", we cut it on Friday leaving rooster tails of water behind the cutting machines and piles of cut grass for the effort.
Yesterday, a neighbor tried to launch his rag wing, Rotax 912 powered ultra light. The machine would not get up enough speed to fly, there was so much drag with the grass and wet soil. He went off the end of 2200' of runway after an abort but did not damage the airplane. Not good. I was really primed to fly, not having been up in over 2 weeks.
I walked the runway and decided, the RV can handle this situation and decided to have a go at it. As it turned out, the beast was off the ground in about 1200' with 10 degrees flaps and nearly full aft stick to keep the NG out of the mess below. This with the Catto turning at 2200 rpm. A CS prop would have made the take off a non event.
This morning I walked the runway again to check the nearly nil braking action on landing. Yep, it was wet. The clay acted like a greased pig, the tires were in a skid for a hundred feet or so at the end of the roll out. Fortunately, the long grass provided plenty of drag and the airplane made a turn off at 1500' after clearing the tall trees on the approach. The key here again is approach speed. Anything over 60 knots, and it would have had a different out come. And on roll out, one has to keep rolling until up on to one of our paved roads. To stop on the turf is to ask for a tow.
Our hard surface project has been approved by the owners and will get under way as soon as things dry out. I figure we need about 3 weeks of no rain before they can start....3 days now without rain an counting.
