On Tuesday, April 30, 2013 9:50:29 AM UTC-5, wrote:
Evidently the State DOT's have declared war on gliders! I am currently fighting the same battle. Reference link below: http://www.thepostsearchlight..com/2...land-on-grass/ In regards to the SSA Memo referenced, the Airport Engineering Division that originally issued the memo is researching if it still applies. Evidently the author has retired. O what joy it must be to own your glider field and not deal with the winds of political change. Lane XF

My old club went through this. For years they operated off the grass next the runway and everyone got along great. Then the airport built a "taxiway to nowhere" to coin a phrase and made that area unusable for takeoffs. We still were able to land there though usually. This of course forced the club operations onto the pavement and then complaints increased.

we often requested that the taxiway to nowhere be removed so we could go back to our former peaceful operations but during airport master plan meetings there were engineers there who just couldn't fathom that you could actually land an aircraft on something other than a paved runway and they were equally amazed that society didn't unravel when an obstacle free zone was encroached.

occasionally a local pilot would complain about us using the grass on the side of the runway but usually they would change their tune when we offered to instead block the big paved runway.

i feel your pain guys, wish there was more i could do to help.