Flying from your own property?

[tienshanman]

Assuming one owns a suitable chunk of land in a rural area, what are the regulatory hurdles to overcome in order to be able legally fly a self launching sailplane from your own property?

[Scott[_7_]]

On 8-15-2010 09:07, tienshanman wrote:
> Assuming one owns a suitable chunk of land in a rural area, what are the
> regulatory hurdles to overcome in order to be able legally fly a self
> launching sailplane from your own property?
>
>
>
>
That will depend entirely on the laws of your state (USA).

In Wisconsin, for example, here are the statutes for airstrips...

http://www.legis.state.wi.us/statutes/Stat0114.pdf

Section 114.134(3) spells out what we need to do in Wisconsin before
building an airport or spaceport...

You can do a Google search such as "XX statutes" where XX is your two
letter state abbreviation.

Scott

[Brian Whatcott]

On 8/15/2010 4:07 AM, tienshanman wrote:
> Assuming one owns a suitable chunk of land in a rural area, what are the
> regulatory hurdles to overcome in order to be able legally fly a self
> launching sailplane from your own property?
>
>
>
>

The general rule of thumb is that casual use of private land for
takeoffs and landings is unregulated. I have heard casual use as meaning
10-15 landings a year. I have heard that casual use is a good way to
begin operations. At the very least, it flushes out unexpected
snags.

Brian W

[Graemec]

On Aug 15, 7:07*pm, tienshanman <tienshanman.
> wrote:
> Assuming one owns a suitable chunk of land in a rural area, what are the
> regulatory hurdles to overcome in order to be able legally fly a self
> launching sailplane from your own property?
>
> --
> tienshanman

Provided your reasonably sized piece of rural property is zoned for
rural purposes, operation of an aircraft has been held to be
reasonably incidental to the permitted uses of farming, grazing, etc.
Transport, mustering, fence and dam inspections, are all acceptable
activities. It wouldn't be difficult to argue that a 300km FAI
triangle was important in assessing local conditions and checking how
neighbour's crops and cattle were progressing. Sheep can wander quite
a distance sometimes. Simply remaining current is also important in
safe aircraft operation.

The case I know of was where a farmer had received development
approval to laser level a piece of land for irrigated horticulture.
Seasonal conditions were unfavourable so he made the best of a bad job
and used the perfectly smoothed land for a runway for his 182.
Neighbours objected that he had no approval for this but the local
council held that the operation was incidental to the approved rural
zoning. He was told that he must not operate for commercial purposes
(charter, etc) but a moderate level of pleasure flying was not seen as
unreasonable.

I know a farmer who operated his DG-400 from his kiwifruit and dairy
farm over a fairly long period. Another kept and flew an ASW-22BLE on
his sheep station. Another bought a few hundred acres near a nice
long range of hills, pulled down a fence to make a runway, built a
hangar, based his RF-5B there and asks his gliding friends to visit
when the ridge is working. I don't think any of them discussed the
matter with anybody in authority.

Barron Hilton might be able to help if you live in Nevada ...although
he doesn't strike me as a man who usually asks permission for what he
wants to do either.

Just do it. Surely it's not called the land of the free for
nothing ...is it?

GC

[John Smith]

Am 15.08.10 11:07, schrieb tienshanman:
> Assuming one owns a suitable chunk of land in a rural area, what are the
> regulatory hurdles to overcome in order to be able legally fly a self
> launching sailplane from your own property?

That depends on in which country that property lies.

[Frank Whiteley]

On Aug 15, 3:07*am, tienshanman <tienshanman.
> wrote:
> Assuming one owns a suitable chunk of land in a rural area, what are the
> regulatory hurdles to overcome in order to be able legally fly a self
> launching sailplane from your own property?
>
> --
> tienshanman

I know of a few local personal strips around here in Colorado. One
had a problem with a neighbor (with a bunch of ostrichs and emus that
are said to have panicked) when the owner held an ultralight fly-in.
Divorce resulted in eventual loss of the strip. One of our two-
seaters landed out there and was towed off again by our tow plane. At
another strip the C-182 driver had to bury the power lines on the edge
of his property for safety and successfully had an oil drilling
contractor move 150ft off his runway centerline. A Kitfox pilot I
know wound up in the fence at someone else's personal strip, which
caused a bit of a local news flap and some neighbor concern. Only
other constraints I've seen locally are no low overflights of the
turkey ranches. The local ultralighters are pretty good about
avoiding the sensitive spots.

That said, there was someone in Tennesse that carved a strip out of
the trees and was shut down.
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/leadnews/rural_airport_closed_193274-1.html

Frank Whiteley

[JS]

A balloon pilot I used to crew for organised early morning launches
from someone's back yard of about two acres.
Every Saturday morning, the locals would be invited over for breakfast
and to enjoy watching the balloon launch.
This was in New Jersey. There are state laws about casual airport use
which shut down the wonderful post-breakfast flights. Something like 5
or 6 flights total before having to get zoned as an airport. It might
be decades since the last new airport in NJ.
Jim

[ray conlon]

On Aug 15, 5:07*am, tienshanman <tienshanman.
> wrote:
> Assuming one owns a suitable chunk of land in a rural area, what are the
> regulatory hurdles to overcome in order to be able legally fly a self
> launching sailplane from your own property?
>
> --
> tienshanman

Check wth you state aviation dept., they deal with this sort of thing.
If you do it, at some point the FAA has to be brought into the process.

[Burt Compton - Marfa]

> If you do it, at some point the FAA has to be brought into the process.


Please describe the FAA part of this process and cite the specific
regulations.