Unlicensed Grass Airfield
 

I'm just wondering if anyone has any useful data regarding setting up an unlicensed grass airfield (in the UK)? I've studied CAP428 which has some good information in it; it recommends that the strip should be 18 metres wide but does not quote a suitable width either side of this (run-off area). I would guess that for safety at least 30 metres would be required. Is there any official figures for this area and is it called the visual strip??
Please only reference to some legal requirement required.....

Tricky question jxk:) You want answers concerning unregulated operations but only answers that "reference some legal requirements..":confused:

A non-licensed airstrip does not 'require' anything by way of protection as set out in ICAO Annex 14 or CAP168 Aerodrome Licensing. CAP428 was introduced to offer GA a guide based on best practice derived from regulatory publications such as CAP168.

You can have a strip width as wide as you like, but woe betide you if you upset a NIMBY and go beyond whatever planning rule you operate under.

Without knowing what field you have in mind, what obstacles are close by and the biggest a/c liable to operate out of said strip it's all a bit hypothetical.

There are a lot of experts around and creating a safe environment for permitted ops will only enhance your position, but I suggest squaring away any planning issues first before creating clear and graded areas around the runway.

Good lick anway.:ok:

Sir George Cayley

Just to follow up on the last post, let's assume there are no obstacles for t/o and landing what sort of clearance would you expect to see either side of the runway itself. I realise it was a bit of a mistake to ask for a 'legal' requirement. I'm thinking that the airfield would need to be fenced off, so how far should the fence be from the active runway? Of course infinity would be good but how about 30 metres (3 x wingspan) to the fence - would this be enough?

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PS Assume no Nimbys and Planning consent granted..

Why exactly do you need a fence? It's just more opportunity for damage to you/aeroplane if you run off the side..

Cusco

I need a fence to keep animals and spotters off the runway; they could be a bigger hazard than the fence and there's also the health & safety aspect to consider..

You will not keep spotters, or more particularly dog walkers off the strip. Ther short mown grass is very attractive to them and the concept of an aircraft using the grass is alien to most.

I speak with some experience of this issue - even to the point of dog walkers parking on the strip after compromising the gates.....

30m either side is a lot of space. Nice if you can get it but much more than most strips need (or indeed have!). Whatever 'space' you have will need to be mown to a similar standard to the runway, otherwise the long grass will actually pull you off the strip it you get one wheel in it.

With an 80m wide area you have got a lot of grass to look after. Which will mean at least a 5 gang mower and tractor, but preferably something bigger.

My last strip was 30m in total and we had no issues with clearance with low wing aircraft - but only a fence on one side. Still took over 1.5hr to cut with a 3 gang mower!

The majority of strip flyers are rather better at staying on the centreline than many others - but for obvious reasons. Obstacles which are more solid such as trees, walls etc tend to be given a natural level of clearance. Think about how close you would be happy to get - usually about 1 wingspan is 'fat and happy'

If you mean farm animals then fair dos:

However you will not keep dog walkers, horseriders, kite flyers, chavs in Astras, Muntjack deer and a whole lot of other stuff off your strip. (I'm speaking from personal experience here).

Our strip is 18yds wide for one third of its length and 40 yards wide for the rest totalling 6 of your great british acres in area.It has unlimited approaches lying as it does along the line of an ex WW2 airfield long since returned to farmland.

Apart from a 150 m stand of trees 20 ft high immediately adjacent to the narrow bit there are absolutely no fences /obstructions indeed the farmer ploughs/drills right up to the edge of the strip on one side.

Presumably the land you're talking about is your own or you'd realise that a 30M wide 'no mans land' on either side would more than double your land rental. (Well it would in our case).

We have two prominent signs inviting folks to ''keep off /active airstrip." Sadly the Muntjack can't read but a low pass (not below 500ft ) sorts that out.

If you've got farm animals a (frangible) electric fence would be safer.

Cusco

I find a .243 gets rid of the muntjac and they taste great if you can be bothered to skin them!

Hah, you're all bluddy pussies :}, where I come from men are men and strips are just that - a strip of something vaguely less inhospitable than the surrounding countryside. I quote from a passage describing how things are done around here:

"The approaches to the bush airstrips varied enormously, their only common denominator being that most of them were one way in and the same way out, with the dead-end being either a wall of trees, a rock bluff, or a gorge too narrow to fit the wings. Cub main wheels span two metres and many strips were only three metres wide with the odd one only wider than the wheels, leaving no margin at all for error. The good grass strip.. was like a narrow tunnel where the giant snowgrass tussocks hard on either side were higher than the wings of a cub, which would bend them over in passing" ..

"Another river-beach strip...which some worthy somehow discovered had only part of its 200 metre length visible from the air. To land on it you came down through the trees to about two metres above the river in order to clear the nest of boulders at the end of the beach. Beyond them there were fifty metres of clear gravel and you would have to pole forward to lose your height then haul back on the stick to hit, as the rest of the stip was actually under the trees overhanging the beach and the river. Getting off again was the same but in reverse, hold her down until clear then haul back on the stick to get over the boulders"

So 18m, let alone a further 30m sounds a positive luxury, you should be able to land almost anything in there :E, methinks I should re-locate to merry England, obviously you have a surfeit of land available for these things (probably nicely mowed too is it?!).

FP.

Unless you do not anticipate using the new strip more than 28 days in a year, you will need planning consent for it. A "change of use" is required from you Local Planning Authority. This will probably require an Environmental Impact Study, which unless you can do it yourself is going cost serious money.

Best of luck!

Like I said previously we've already got the planning permission JUST wanted some guidance on what would anyone expect for a sensible area to leave either side of runway.
But I guess it was too much to ask for a sensible answer here on PPruNe:-)

if you want a sensible width and you have the space, i would say treble the runway width, ie 18m on each side, that should cover most eventualities, although if there are high trees on both sides in my view (just being sensible, not anything legal) i'd prefer 25m each side

my two guilders twenty cents worth (1 euro)

vH

Yes that's what I though i.e. 30 meters.

Jxk, see your pm's. Chris N.

Do you mean you've got 'blanket' permission for a strip of unspecifed width.

Where do you live, surely not in UK?

Or if you've specified dimensions in your planning permission and if your dimensions differ from non- sensible (your words) answers here, are you going to re-submit your planning application.

Just curious

Cusco

The not quite so sensible answer is a large, flat, roughly circular, field about 700-1000m on any dimension.

Granted you will have a big job on to mow it but you will always be able to take off and land into wind and the noise footprint will be well distributed. The run-off areas are almost limitless.

I believe this design worked well for the RAF for many years.;) The Army still have one to this pattern (Middle Wallop).

I suggest you go & visit, by road, a few local strips to see what they do in real life.
>28 days a year use will eventually give you continued rights which mean if the neighbours are kept happy you don't need to say anything to the Council.
A landowner has certain rights to use his property etc. anyway !
Hangars constitute a >28 planning change unless they are really tractor & farm m/c sheds, into which one can also pop an a/c !
You'll need a grass topper or mower for frequent strip cutting and a heavy roller & grass harrow are more than useful, plus of course a shed for them too, how handy.
The balance would need hay cropping to prevent it growing rank. Sometimes local farmers will oblige; or pay a contractor to cut & bale, for selling off oneself. However the latter implies being around for customers and covered hay store or tarp's, I never tried that route yet.
Cattle are discouraged, deer around Sussex seem to skip off out of the way, horses are a no no.
Depending on the field and your choice of a/c & skills,anything from 200 M up to 600 m would do with microlights at the bottom end.
I've been operating happily for 1/3 Century from three farm strips I originated, from nr. Horsham Sx.

Indeed: RIP RAF Swanton Morley in Norfolk.

Did my complex checkout there eons ago:

Line of moveable white markers across the middle lined up with the wind: gliders to the left, powered to the right.

So simple........

Cusco:rolleyes:

And just to continue the thread drift....many of BA's more senior pilots cut their teeth landing along the line of cones at Hamble.

valuation visit for farm strip
 

I own a small farm that is registered for agriculture out of which I operate an aircraft using one of the paddocks as a strip. I use part of an existing barn as a hangar. I have no planning permission as such but have been operating without problem for about ten years. I have just received a notification from the Valuations Office that they want to visit and "value the strrip and hangar". Any advice on how one should play this? There are tractors etc in the barn so I guess it's mixed use. Simil;arly I have sheep that sometimes graze on the strip. Any advice would be much appreciated.