wrote:
You don't need an "airport" to do winch operations just any old grass
field will do. Needs to be wide enough but 100 feet would do it. How
many private grass airfields are there in the U.S. that fit this bill?
I'd bet it is a lot.

There are some grass airfields in the eastern and northern US, few or no
grass airfields in the southwest (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona,
Nevada, Utah, California). The main problem in much of the US is urban
growth patterns, most winch suitable fields that are close enough to
major population centers to support a decent size soaring community long
ago mutated into shopping malls or housing developments. That's why we
tend to use public airports, when they let us...

Marc