J

Jetlinkin

Member
Show of hands... How many of you 4 owners would be comfortable landing your 4 on a 2800'x 50 grass strip with 100 ft. tall trees surrounding the entire perimeter? Or any advise.
 
I routinely land on a similar grass strip a friend of mine has, and its completely surrounded by trees 50-100 ft tall, 2350 in length. No worries.
 
Prop?

With my CS prop I come down like a brick and go up like a balloon! The trees wouldn't be much of a problem. Not sure how much difference a FP prop would make.
 
We have a -9 and a -7 based on 2000 foot grass strip. No problems.
If tall trees on both ends, watch the hot and heavy take-offs.

On issue that I see with pilots going into strips that are considerably shorter than the 5000 foot airports they are used to is the feeling that the end is rushing to you and the desire to rush the touchdown. This usually causes PIO and bouncing and/or loss of directional control. Practice on 200 feet of your home runway, then just fly it the same. An RV 4 will roll to a stop in 1000feet easy with no brakes if you fly the pattern on speed and glideslope.
 
Last edited:
That runway should not be a problem for any 1 or 2 seat RV, F/P or C/S.
Of course pilot proficiency and technique are a big factor.
 
Not a problem

I fly into a 1800 foot strip with 100' trees a 1000' off the end. So it looks alot like a 2800' with trees on the end. Only time getting in is a problem is with a tailwind or when it is extremely wet. Getting out should not be a problem at all. A CS prop would help but I fly into mine with a FP.
 
Jetlinkin said:
Show of hands... How many of you 4 owners would be comfortable landing your 4 on a 2800'x 50 grass strip with 100 ft. tall trees surrounding the entire perimeter? Or any advise.
Click to expand...

Should be no problem...100' trees are tall, but if you're comfortable with an aggressive slip on short final you should be able to drop right down over those suckers and have quite a LOT of runway left!

Cheers,
Stein
 
Width?

Am I the only one who thinks the width is AS much a concern as the length?

If it is really 50' wide with 100' tall trees on both sides you are going to have to be sure you know what a crosswind is! And what is the change going to be like as you descend below the treeline?
 
Last edited:
Jetlink, this is all about pilot capability, the -4 can easily do it in the right hands. Van can operate out of 600' (?) I know I cant!

My -4 is based at my home where I have 1020'. However I do not come in over 50' trees. I use 750 to 800'.

If you say an approach angle of 5:1, not sure about that though, you need an extra 500'. So I would say 1520' would be fine on that basis.

I do use a c/s prop and suspect its a big help though have never flown the -4 without.

A couple of issues:
- Dont bother trying until you can repeatably land the -4 in an acceptable distance elsewhere.
- Practice the descent over the trees. I do have about 50' at one end of my strip and found that with practice I could get my Supercub down very steeply. But it did need practice.
- Wind speed and direction are crucial. Make a habit of comparing the ASI and GPS late on final. Clearly you need a low but adequate airspeed, but the GPS shows the ground speed which is crucial once you are on the ground.

You can see my strip and a video of landing my Supercub here.

By the way, the very first -4 take-off is here.

As to width I mow mine a little less than the -4 wingspan. A 6' hedge about 30 yds upwind shields me significantly from the prevailing cross wind. 50/100' trees should make it quite calm in there, but do watch out for a tail component if its one way like mine. Look at that GPS.

Take it easy, one step at a time. Dont do anything that you dont know will succeed. Good luck.
 
Last edited:
I fly a -3 with 160hp and the length of the strip would be no problem at all. If there are tall pines only 50' apart, they might have branches extending at least 10 more feet leaving little more than your wingspan clear. If the strip is truly like that and I can't believe it would be, forget it! My strip is about 50' wide and some years I have corn all around it and that has been no problem, although visitors seem reluctant to land on corn years. It is a different experence landing with tall corn all around, the horizon disappears when you drop below the corn.
 
grass landing

i use about the same runway once in a while. no problems. the grass will actually help you slow down.

dan carley
rv-4
n14ft
 
With an RV-8, 180hp fixed pitch, 2100 feet density altitude, no wind I use 1700 feet. Thats over the trees at the end and stopped. Seems long to me but so far its the best I have been able to do. I use 70 mph on final. Bill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.