How wide is your average farm strip?
 

I guess about 60feet or 20m.

Does this sound about right?

How narrow can you go?

Ben

How wide is your gear? I use to land a Super Cub in pickup truck tracks in the snow when towing sailplanes in Tehachappi, Ca. My Dad planted two rows of barley so I could land my Stinson on the farm. Plenty wide.

Mine is just wingspan wide. High wing aircraft used to avoid standing crops at this time of year.

Mine is 18m wide at it's narrowest point and I have no problem with my T'Hawk even with 15kt xwinds.

Lockyear's excellent farmstrip guide gives runway dimensions (width and length). And of course, since ppr is de rigeur, you can always ask the owner.
After a year of landing at Croft Farm, Defford, I still find 18m looks small on finals, but it's fine when I get there...
hum....

Try pererlee or upfield farm. They are 7m wide, i find it hard to judge the approach on narrow strips.

9m wide in summer

50m after harvest!

Too often too narrow for gliders. I had to land out last year and thought a farm strip was wide enough for my 15 meter span glider - it wasn't. I later found that the resulting ground loop (as one wing caught the adjacent crop) did some minor damage. :hmm:

Chris N.

Yes, you'd think that there would be more work done on a high wing glider for that very reason? I know T tails were often used with that in mind but why not at least shoulder height wings like older gliders? There must be drag reasons I suppose? but you'd think that could be reduced with good design and a modern glass build?

My strip is either a single up and down pass with the topper, which equals around 16 feet when grass growth is slow, or two passes (32') when fast.

SS

Some thoughts on private strips
 

A pal who farms next door has told me I can put a grass strip in one of his fields if I want.
I would have to pay for the loss of income, but that is all.
Could get one around 7-800 metres long in a field adjoing our little paddock,in which I could erect a small hangar.

Plus points
Very handy.

Negative points

On my own-safety and no company.
Cultivating and sowing correct grass mix £250
Mowing once or twice a week,I have a little grey Fergie tractor but would need to buy mower £1000
Tractor fuel £100+
Rental of land,estimate 1 to 1.5 hectares to include taxiway's etc £150-225/annum
Cost of hangar and concrete floor £15000?

Spread hangarage over 10 years =£1500/yr

Say total £2000 /yr
Plus initial capital cost of £15-18k.

I can rent good local hangar space for a lot less than that and be with other pilot pals and interesting aircraft.

Lister:)

But then lister, you could get a few buddies to come n fly from yours and charge them :-p

disregarding the 28 day rule of course ooooops did i say that out loud

A hangar need not cost the earth to build and I picked up a good second hand triple gang mower for just under £300.
Despite the cost of setting up and maintaining a strip, the real bonus is having a plane just outside your house ready and waiting whenever you want to go have a jolly. You can't put a price on that!
and with that, I'm off for a flip right now (well, the sun is shining and there's a whole lot of scattered cumulus to go play in).

about nineteen feet.

The one I fly from is 18m wide, but I'd say having flown from quite a few that the average is probably around 12m.

G

Ours is about 12m or so.

Is there such a thing as an "average" farm strip?

By definition yes, but drivers, aeroplanes for the use of, must beware of the fact that to make an average there has to be at least one wider and another narrower. ;)

SS wrote: "Yes, you'd think that there would be more work done on a high wing glider for that very reason? I know T tails were often used with that in mind but why not at least shoulder height wings like older gliders? There must be drag reasons I suppose? but you'd think that could be reduced with good design and a modern glass build?"

Drag and, I think, handling characteristics and view out, are why not, plus no real need. The modern glider fuselage is very low profile to minimise drag. The rape I landed between was about 5 feet high; some crops are higher still. A high wing would add profile drag, probably more pendulum and/or dihedral stability than required, and impede lookout in turns (of which gliders do a lot). There is no need in most UK areas I fly in, because with good performance, landable fields or aerodromes are almost always within glide range. I would rather keep the performance and forego the high wing. My mistake was to discard options of large fields with short crops and go for what I thought was a safe option of a strip - but misjudging its width as seen from about 1500 feet when I reduced my choices. ILAFFT.

Chris N.

Lister N - remember that your farmer won't be able to claim set aside on any of the land that you use for the strip, or access to it.

You could surface the area inside the hangar not used by the u/c with really well rolled in tarmac scrapings. I've also seen portal frames s/h (plus carriage) at sensible prices.

a-a,
Maybe permanent pasture.;) ;)