Private airport or small field for landout?

Here in the Northeast, I've had good luck with "land in hay, make your day". Ideal is recently mown and/or raked. as the mowers and tedders/rakes are only used in hospitable terrain. Obviously, baled but not collected is a problem. Lots of fields here have the hay baled and stacked/stored alongside the field, including the large, round bales wrapped in white plastic that look like huge marshmallows. When you see that, it's a reasonable bet that the field is kept in hay and should be landable.

One of my favorite landouts happened near Seneca lake where I was hanging on in weak lift between 800 and 1000 feet while the farmer cut my "airport" as I was grinding away. It was a nice, 2000 foot field with fairly tall grass, and when I got there the first pass was probably only a semi-span wide. After 2 passes I was pretty sure it was plenty wide, and by the time I was ready to land he was halfway through pass #3.

He was surprised to find an "airplane" in his field when he turned around to start pass #4, but he warmed up when I offered to help with some of the other chores while I waited for crew. He finished up and met me at the barn where he opened the fridge stocked with Yeungling. I sent him an SSA calendar for Christmas, and we got a nice card from him for several years after that.

P3



on Wednesday, May 27, 2020 at 10:44:14 PM UTC-4, George Haeh wrote:
"Land in the dirt, you won't get hurt" has, so far, worked well for me.

Farmers don't get worked up about crop damage when it's not even an inch high.

With private strips, width can be a deal/glider breaker. I passed up one in the book because the stated width looked a tight squeeze. And I once saw the green (corn) stains on the tips of an 18m self launcher. The owner had the look of a narrow escape on him. The private strips I have used were known to my local club as wide enough for gliders. The owners have been hospitable and happy to talk airplanes. There's the rare one that won't allow aerotow retrieve because of liability considerations.

You can compare the width to power pole spacing.

No matter how hard you study the local fields and airports, the day will likely come when you have to evaluate fields from the air. It's been recommended for aspiring XC pilots to evaluate possible fields from the air and drive over for a look.