Originally Posted by
tonyhalsall
I am not sure that it is the grass which is the problem - more what is underneath.
The last ice age is the culprit for the whole of Northern England having an almost impermeable boulder clay sub surface which traps water in a thin layer of grass and topsoil. Further south where the ice didn't reach you still have the natural subsurface of chalk and surface water very quickly dissipates away. Effective draining of a grass runway which is on top of clay would probably be hugely expensive.
I don't think it's that clearcut.
Down my way, for example, we have for example Compton Abbas (top of a chalk hill, regular quagmire), Popham (used to be an utter quagmire until they started re-inforcing and spiking, now useable throughout the year, albeit with an occasional caution and touch-and-go ban), White Waltham (heavily used, slippery but never quite unusable), Redlands (I've sunk a nosewheel to the cowling) or Chilbolton (built by the RAF originally, very well drained, lots of clover permanently useable - albeit with much less use than the others).
So, yes what's underneath should definitely make a difference, but I think that treatment can still make huge differences.
G