How long is your grass?
'just another atco'
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 154
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From: LTC Swanwick
I was pleased to note that at the Butty Fly-In that Bourn operate a 'small boulder policy'. Rubble and rocks along taxiway Bravo have been carefully managed to ensure that none of them exceed 7 inches in diameter
Mind you I may be exaggerating, I have never been very good at judging 7 inches, and they may have been nearer 3 inches in reality
Seriously, I am far from convinced about the Authority’s current ‘Long Grass Policy’. I think a reasonably manicured aerodrome is far preferable, easier and safer to operate from than large areas of 'long' grass. At Old Warden we cut the aprons, taxiways and runways relatively short while the majority of the remaining aerodrome is cut to about 5-6 inches which facilitates landing in just about any direction with our old and fragile types, if required. The ability to actually keep the grass at lengths of 5 plus inches is quite difficult to achieve and can often result in long grass being chopped short resulting in large amounts of cut grass laying around which, of course, if dry is easily ingested or if wet, forms clumps which stick on or in everything.
Mind you I may be exaggerating, I have never been very good at judging 7 inches, and they may have been nearer 3 inches in realitySeriously, I am far from convinced about the Authority’s current ‘Long Grass Policy’. I think a reasonably manicured aerodrome is far preferable, easier and safer to operate from than large areas of 'long' grass. At Old Warden we cut the aprons, taxiways and runways relatively short while the majority of the remaining aerodrome is cut to about 5-6 inches which facilitates landing in just about any direction with our old and fragile types, if required. The ability to actually keep the grass at lengths of 5 plus inches is quite difficult to achieve and can often result in long grass being chopped short resulting in large amounts of cut grass laying around which, of course, if dry is easily ingested or if wet, forms clumps which stick on or in everything.
