Selecting landout airports

Thanks Bruce, I have done a lot of unassisted aerotow said with our STD Cirrus. And I do angle the ship in anticipation of the low wing causing a turn in that direction. We have very short grass on our primary runway so nothing has ever snagged the wing tip. With a Cirrus I preferred unassisted because by the time the wing comes up it's almost too late for it to drop again.

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 3:52:49 PM UTC+3, akiley wrote:
I'm a member of a club that has marginal trailers for our ships. Because of this, and the multitude of small airports in our area, I usually just airport hop for cross country flights. We also have unpredictable landout options because 90% of the fields seem to be corn, which at the wrong time of the year are dangerous. So I'm looking for land and tow out airports

I'm mapping out good airports in various directions but have some questions:

1. In a standard class ship what might be the narrowest runway for landing when there are runway edge lights?

2. What about for an unassisted tow from (how narrow with runway lights)

3. Will a wing runner make much of a difference on a narrow strip

4. Turf/grass v asphalt, is one easier than the other given runway edge lights?

It's all about clipping a light.

I've also noticed from satellite views that there is often a grass parallel area located at many asphalt strips, but no way of knowing if these are landable.

If a place is developed enough to have runway lights then you might well be better off landing on a taxiway, run up area etc!

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 9:31:45 AM UTC-4, Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 3:52:49 PM UTC+3, akiley wrote:
I'm a member of a club that has marginal trailers for our ships. Because of this, and the multitude of small airports in our area, I usually just airport hop for cross country flights. We also have unpredictable landout options because 90% of the fields seem to be corn, which at the wrong time of the year are dangerous. So I'm looking for land and tow out airports

3. Will a wing runner make much of a difference on a narrow strip


for 3, "JJ Wing Runners" are a good investment. https://www.cumulus-soaring.com/jj.htm .


Dan

Keeping the wings level until stopped is the way to avoid clipping a
light. That, and maintaining runway center. I once landed out at a
small country airport with lights spaced 54' apart in an LS-6a (15
meter), stopped on center line before the wing dropped. Practice that
and you'll have no worries.

Grass is less abrasive than pavement but can be bumpy and very slippery,
especially when wet.


On 5/26/2016 6:52 AM, akiley wrote:
I'm a member of a club that has marginal trailers for our ships. Because of this, and the multitude of small airports in our area, I usually just airport hop for cross country flights. We also have unpredictable landout options because 90% of the fields seem to be corn, which at the wrong time of the year are dangerous. So I'm looking for land and tow out airports

I'm mapping out good airports in various directions but have some questions:

1. In a standard class ship what might be the narrowest runway for landing when there are runway edge lights?

2. What about for an unassisted tow from (how narrow with runway lights)

3. Will a wing runner make much of a difference on a narrow strip

4. Turf/grass v asphalt, is one easier than the other given runway edge lights?

It's all about clipping a light.

I've also noticed from satellite views that there is often a grass parallel area located at many asphalt strips, but no way of knowing if these are landable.

--
Dan, 5J

And FWIW (in the almost-fergot-to-mention-it sense of things)...

On 5/26/2016 6:52 AM, akiley wrote:
Major snip...

I've also noticed from satellite views that there is often a grass parallel
area located at many asphalt strips, but no way of knowing if these are
landable.

Philosophically speaking, I've long considered airport landings - in a glider
and in the absence of 1st-hand and current knowledge of the field in question
- to be an "airport landout" by which I mean if the landing is on the runway,
it has a host of glider-unfriendly risks (just like every off-field landing)
with the sole exception of a known good surface (if powerplanes are actively
using it, of course; abandoned/little-used, "paved" strips don't count!).
Complacency can bite.

Furthermore, you doanwanna end up like a local pilot who landed out (some
years ago, now) a G-103 at the (nice, active, freshly upgraded) Longmont, CO,
A/P, located a whopping 8 or 9 air miles from our home field, and who decided
- for dodgy reasons likely having to do with "convenience for regular A/P
users" - to "use the grass" alongside the freshly re-concreted, very wide,
really long, main runway...and "busted the ship" by either hitting a
several-inch-high lip of a taxiway or groundlooping in the high grass (the
details have faded...).

Our local glider FBO/DPE (who went on the retrieve) was thoroughly
unimpressed, booming out the question, "Why'd you land in the grass when you
had this nice 7,000' long newly repaved runway right next to it???" Why indeed...

Bob W.