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#1
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"bush flying" in the suburbs?
Among other aircraft I've been looking at the Zenith Air STOL CH 801
lately, which attracted my attention purely as an inexpensive and eaily built plane to cart my family around. http://www.zenithair.com But the advertised 390-ft fully-loaded ground roll got me fantasizing about all the convenient places I could land with a STOL bush plane. Somebody give me a reality check -- even in relatively densely populated suburbs, there are a number of large open fields suitable for a bush plane. As it happens there is one such within walking distance of my parents' house in the northern D.C. suburbs, and there are other flattish largish open spaces near other places I visit. Has anybody on these newsgroups had any luck convincing random private landowners to let them land on their unimproved property? Anybody even tried? Are there likely to be local ordinances prohibiting intentional off-airport landings in the suburbs? Lets just leave aside for the moment the pesky little question of whether I'm qualified for this kind of adventuring... |
#2
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wrote in message ups.com... But the advertised 390-ft fully-loaded ground roll got me fantasizing about all the convenient places I could land with a STOL bush plane. Somebody give me a reality check Forget about it. The first problem you have is the Washington DC ADIZ. Basically anything within 30 nautical miles of DCA is *very* strictly controlled in terms of arrivals and departures. Assuming you are within this ring there is no chance you would be allowed to land and depart from anywhere except several specially-designated fields and after a ton of other rigmarole. But it is highly unlikely you'd ever get that far. First, there are enough problems in suburbs with noise complaints coming from people who bought houses built five years ago next to an airport that has been around since the Wright bros. were still signing pilots' licenses. To get an idea of what the world is coming to check out www.stopthenoise.org. This is up in Mass., which politically is pretty much the same crowd you get around the Beltway. And the liability? Let's say your engine fails several hundred AGL on takeoff. If you're really in the 'burbs then odds are good you're coming down in a populated area. Whatever gets broken, that property owner whose field you departed from is getting sued. Hopefully it's just somebody's patio furniture and not something more difficult to replace. As for the absolute legality of it, most populated areas have zoning boards that exercise power approaching that of the Soviet Union. There are almost certainly enough catch-alls in there to ensure that you would, at the very least, have to spend a small fortune on lawyers in the process. YMMV. Free advice is often worth every penny you pay for it. -cwk. |
#3
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The first problem you have is the Washington DC ADIZ
Hm, shoots that idea down.... |
#4
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wrote in message ups.com... The first problem you have is the Washington DC ADIZ Hm, shoots that idea down.... I hope we don't give up 'our' airspace that easily... What do the helicopter folks do? |
#5
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Go for it. It's not as uncommon as you might think. I live in
Oklahoma City and a couple of guys around here have Super Cubs or Maules that they go goof around in. Within a very short flight most cities there are vast areas of undeveloped land you can land a bush plane on. Here we have two rivers with beautiful smooth sand bars, several motor vehicle recreation areas and myriad fields. A couple of years ago we had a guy in a Maule land in a field to drop his son off at baseball practice at one of our high schools. The local news station sent a truck out to cover the "crash." I think someone called the fire department and they came out to watch him take back off again. It's been a few years, but I think one of the news stations interviewed the local police department who confirmed that there is nothing illegal about landing an airplane in a field (duh). However, check your local laws, most states have some rules about using public roads as your own personal airstrip. I landed in a field once to stop and talk to a land owner. We plopped down next to his pickup truck and chatted for a while. Not really as big a deal as you might think. wrote: Among other aircraft I've been looking at the Zenith Air STOL CH 801 lately, which attracted my attention purely as an inexpensive and eaily built plane to cart my family around. http://www.zenithair.com But the advertised 390-ft fully-loaded ground roll got me fantasizing about all the convenient places I could land with a STOL bush plane. Somebody give me a reality check -- even in relatively densely populated suburbs, there are a number of large open fields suitable for a bush plane. As it happens there is one such within walking distance of my parents' house in the northern D.C. suburbs, and there are other flattish largish open spaces near other places I visit. Has anybody on these newsgroups had any luck convincing random private landowners to let them land on their unimproved property? Anybody even tried? Are there likely to be local ordinances prohibiting intentional off-airport landings in the suburbs? Lets just leave aside for the moment the pesky little question of whether I'm qualified for this kind of adventuring... |
#6
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#7
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That's how flying ought to be. It shouldn't be any more complicated than a
drive in the country or taking a tractor out on the field. Shawn wrote in message ups.com... Go for it. It's not as uncommon as you might think. I live in Oklahoma City and a couple of guys around here have Super Cubs or Maules that they go goof around in. Within a very short flight most cities there are vast areas of undeveloped land you can land a bush plane on. Here we have two rivers with beautiful smooth sand bars, several motor vehicle recreation areas and myriad fields. A couple of years ago we had a guy in a Maule land in a field to drop his son off at baseball practice at one of our high schools. The local news station sent a truck out to cover the "crash." I think someone called the fire department and they came out to watch him take back off again. It's been a few years, but I think one of the news stations interviewed the local police department who confirmed that there is nothing illegal about landing an airplane in a field (duh). However, check your local laws, most states have some rules about using public roads as your own personal airstrip. I landed in a field once to stop and talk to a land owner. We plopped down next to his pickup truck and chatted for a while. Not really as big a deal as you might think. wrote: Among other aircraft I've been looking at the Zenith Air STOL CH 801 lately, which attracted my attention purely as an inexpensive and eaily built plane to cart my family around. http://www.zenithair.com But the advertised 390-ft fully-loaded ground roll got me fantasizing about all the convenient places I could land with a STOL bush plane. Somebody give me a reality check -- even in relatively densely populated suburbs, there are a number of large open fields suitable for a bush plane. As it happens there is one such within walking distance of my parents' house in the northern D.C. suburbs, and there are other flattish largish open spaces near other places I visit. Has anybody on these newsgroups had any luck convincing random private landowners to let them land on their unimproved property? Anybody even tried? Are there likely to be local ordinances prohibiting intentional off-airport landings in the suburbs? Lets just leave aside for the moment the pesky little question of whether I'm qualified for this kind of adventuring... |
#8
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#10
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I flew up to Valemount in the back of a Piper Cub (J-4 or J-5, can't
rememer which). If it had a back, it must have been the J-5. Lyman |
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