"Jay Honeck" wrote in message Our solution?
The Amana Colonies (Iowa's biggest tourist attraction See
http://www.amanacolonies.com/welcome/index.html if you're curious) has a
small grass strip, located in the town of Amana. It is 2400 feet long,
75 feet wide, charges a voluntary $5 landing fee (there's just a box with
envelopes), and is within easy walking distance of many great restaurants,
shops, a working woolen mill (the last one in the Midwest), and a terrific
microbrewery.


In that 0.3 hour flight, we do EVERYTHING that we need to do on any
flight, from getting a weather/TFR briefing, to pre-flight, to interacting
with traffic in our local pattern, to navigating, to setting up the radios
and transponder, to talking with ATC (Amana is under the Class C airspace
of Cedar Rapids), to landing on a short field. On the way out, it's the
reverse, plus we get to practice short field/soft field departures. And,
back when I was actively practicing IFR flight, I could shoot an approach
back into Iowa City, too.

Total time? 0.6 hours. Flight intensity due to short duration/high work
load? Moderate. Fun factor: Priceless!

What do you guys do to stay sharp?
--

Jay, that's not a short runway have a look at these. They are what keeps us
sharp especially with the Military passing through the overhead without
warning.

http://www.popham-airfield.co.uk/Pro...tm#Runway%2026

Chris