Shortly after buying my Saratoga TC ll, I decided to drop into Sywell EGBK for a bite to eat. I’d been in there several times before but in a PA28 Arrow. On arrival the runway had switched to the very short Rwy 23 grass just 603 mtrs. It was a fine dry day and so I elected to land, although I hadn’t considered departing.
had some lunch in the lovely Art deco terminal, uplifted a full load (102usg) of fuel and headed out to the still in use 23. As I lined up the tower informed that the main 21 hard was now available, however, I was lined up and ready to try my FIRST soft field takeoff in the 32. 25 flap, brakes on, full power and off we go…It’s amazing how quickly you can eat up 600 mtrs. I eventually reached 75 tks and back came the yoke, climb out was a little sluggish until the gear came up but it wasn’t really too much of a drama. However, my one lasting memory was how little grass was left, certainly less than 100 mtrs.
once back at EGSC I decided to look up the POH. 25flap: check full power: check, rotate at 70IAS: bugger! OK I did have 5 up my sleeve, but it could have gone very wrong if one of the very many variables had changed. I always regarded myself lucky not to have pranged my lovely ‘new’ aircraft and I’m now so aware of the aircraft’s limitations and mine. She’s great to fly and in the right hands short field grass takeoffs are very achievable. 600mtrs? Just about, but not for me. My minimum is 800 grass on a good day and a good surface. My Sywell adventure has had several outcomes; I now think really hard about where I land and go over the takeoff figures several times. Secondly, I now have an aversion to grass runways. Thirdly, my home plate has almost 2000 mtrs and this has made my approach (no pun) to short field operations quite lazy.
just one final point, I learned to fly my aircraft out of Fowlmere which is 704mtrs plus another 150 mtr takeoff run for rwy25. I never thought once it was too short…amazing what a very competent instructor sitting next to you can do for your confidence.