Glider staging at public airports

[Frank Whiteley]

Like to hear from 3-4 operations that are staging on the taxiway or
grass and starting the tow from that position.

Call or e-mail.

TIA,

Frank Whiteley
SSA Clubs & Chapters Committee
970-330-2050
7am-10pm MST

[Mike Schumann]

We tow off the grass at the south end of 18/36 in Immokalee FL.

Mike Schumann

"Frank Whiteley" > wrote in message
...
> Like to hear from 3-4 operations that are staging on the taxiway or
> grass and starting the tow from that position.
>
> Call or e-mail.
>
> TIA,
>
> Frank Whiteley
> SSA Clubs & Chapters Committee
> 970-330-2050
> 7am-10pm MST

[[email protected]]

On Feb 26, 9:34*pm, Frank Whiteley > wrote:
> Like to hear from 3-4 operations that are staging on the taxiway or
> grass and starting the tow from that position.
>
> Call or e-mail.
>
> TIA,
>
> Frank Whiteley
> SSA Clubs & Chapters Committee
> 970-330-2050
> 7am-10pm MST

Valley Soaring Club- Middletown NY. Grass parallel to main paved
runway. Common traffic pattern with
final for gliders and tugs lined up off of line for main runway. Main
only used as last resort.
Requires heads up at all times but we never block the paved runway.
Contact me privately if more info needed.
UH

[vontresc]

On Feb 28, 2:31*pm, wrote:
> On Feb 26, 9:34*pm, Frank Whiteley > wrote:
>
> > Like to hear from 3-4 operations that are staging on the taxiway or
> > grass and starting the tow from that position.
>
> > Call or e-mail.
>
> > TIA,
>
> > Frank Whiteley
> > SSA Clubs & Chapters Committee
> > 970-330-2050
> > 7am-10pm MST
>
> Valley Soaring Club- Middletown NY. Grass parallel to main paved
> runway. Common traffic pattern with
> final for gliders and tugs lined up off of line for main runway. Main
> only used as last *resort.
> Requires heads up at all times but we never block the paved runway.
> Contact me privately if more info needed.
> UH

Our club in Hartford WI usually uses the grass runway (18/36). It's
plenty wide (215') so sharing it with the usual taildragger traffic
isn't too bad. When the winds favors the paved runway (11/29) we stage
launch and land on the grass next to the runway. We generally do not
use the pavement unless the grass is unavailable. We use right traffic
for sailplanes, and left traffic for power. We get along pretty good
with the power folks at our airport.

Peter

[kestrel19]

On Feb 26, 7:34*pm, Frank Whiteley > wrote:
> Like to hear from 3-4 operations that are staging on the taxiway or
> grass and starting the tow from that position.
>
> Call or e-mail.
>
> TIA,
>
> Frank Whiteley
> SSA Clubs & Chapters Committee
> 970-330-2050
> 7am-10pm MST

Thank you to all who responded. Your comments and observations are
appreciated.

Frank

[Steve]

Greater Boston also operates from the grass beside the runway. We've
designed our glider patterns to not cross the normal left-hand patterns
used by the power traffic. We've got enough of a hill on the east side
of 34 that we don't do right-hand patterns there except in emergencies.

I also recall that when there was a glider operation at North Adams,
they would stage on one of the middle taxi-way intersections, and use
the tow plane to pull the glider onto the runway for takeoff.

Steve

Frank Whiteley wrote:
> Like to hear from 3-4 operations that are staging on the taxiway or
> grass and starting the tow from that position.
>
> Call or e-mail.
>
> TIA,
>
> Frank Whiteley
> SSA Clubs & Chapters Committee
> 970-330-2050
> 7am-10pm MST

[[email protected]]

On Feb 26, 9:34*pm, Frank Whiteley > wrote:
> Like to hear from 3-4 operations that are staging on the taxiway or
> grass and starting the tow from that position.
>
> Call or e-mail.
>
> TIA,
>
> Frank Whiteley
> SSA Clubs & Chapters Committee
> 970-330-2050
> 7am-10pm MST

NESA commonly operates from grass adjacent to paved runways at VSF
(Springfield, VT). This airport has a non-precision instrument
approach & 5500' runway and does get very occasional small jet
traffic.

An issue came up a couple of years ago when someone decided that the
airport needed "upgrades" to taxi/runway signs. I was not involved
directly, but recall that this was troublesome in two ways... the
first was that the "preferred" location for the signs would have made
much of the grass unusable for glider ops and the second was that
there was a minor ruckus when it was "discovered" that gliders were
operating in the "safety zone" adjacent the runway (and had been for
decades). We were able to negotiate a compromise location for the
signs which made them bearable, and boy do they look spiffy <thank you
US taxpayers>. The "safety zone" issue went quiet, I don't know
why.

-T8