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Old 16th October 2002 | 09:12
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Aussie Andy
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Joined: Aug 2000
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From: Buckinghamshire
I am always surprised when I read of people who trained on grass being a bit anxious about landing on hard surfaces. Like you, I trained on hard - but I like both (steady!)...

I was a bit taken aback with my first solo grass landing, which happened to be at Goodwood on 06 on my QXC. This runway is plenty long - at least as long as the hard surface I had departed from at my training airfield Wycombe - but was slightly damp (morning dew?) and I was very surprised at how slippery it was... this became apparent when I started braking! Easy to deal with, just backed off the brakes a bit, but made my heart skip!

Be sure to be familiar with all the relevant calculations as shown in the Saftey Sense leaflet, and even if you don't think its necessary I'd recommend that you actually do the calculations with your POH in hand - at least the first few times you use a given grass runway. You'll be surprised at how all the various fudge factors add-up! For instance, I know that if I am in our club's Dakota (heavier than a regular Warrior) then I can't accept a landing on Sywell's 15 (unless it happens to have a seriously stonking headwind!). So whenever I go there in that aircraft, I make note of this and if they can't give me another runway (if in XW limits) I go elsewhere.

I really enjoy some bumpy grass strips - e.g. White Waltham's 25 - you don't get to decide when to become airborne, the runway kinda decides for you

The relevant Safety Sense leaflet 7B is here and similar information is in AIC 67/2002 (Pink 36)

(Reading Simon W's post below has reminded me that we have grass at Wycombe! But I had never had to land on it solo before the experience mentioned at Goodwood...)

Last edited by Aussie Andy; 16th October 2002 at 13:20.
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