Of course I can land in your front garden
 

A bit of protracted, friendly banter yesterday culminated in a STOL demonstration by a good mate of mine.

He decided to pay me a visit and landed his Auster in my front garden. Nicely done - I never got around to trying it in the Messenger (never had the bottle or the skills more like...)

We are now hoping for a good frost as opposed to the 2 months that it will probably take to dry out sufficiently for him to get it out again!

I reckon my place will be a major turning point now - I can just imagine the double-takes from the local club fliers. How the @u@k did that get there??

Er - no - don't try to extract the details from me - I would only confess under torture or 'the influence'.

We need more characters like this in aviation - hurrah!

HP

Nothing quite like a 'character' such as your pal to boost the insurance premiums for the rest of us who abide by the rules and live within sensible limits. Just how large is your front garden?

Kermie :rolleyes:

Kermit,

In the UK there is NO rule against landing in your own front gardan. The 28 day rule allows any use of land so long as it's no more than 28 days in any one year.

I regularly 'drop in' to see my dad by landing in his 200m 1in7 paddock - whats wrong with that..?

As for insurance premiums you are WRONG - The spam can club boys running off the end of long grass 'strips' in PA28's are far more likely to cause insurance hikes than seasoned strip flyers... Ask yourself one question - who is likely to carry out a sucessful forced landing - a tailwheel strip flyer or a club PA28/152 driver?

I know who my money would be on!

Kingy

I am with Kermit on this one, read the first line of the original post

“A bit of protracted, friendly banter yesterday culminated in a STOL demonstration by a good mate of mine”

that translates to

“I bet I can land in your front garden

I bet you can’t

I bet I can, watch this……”

Fortunately it didn’t make it into the newspapers.

And just how, or rather when, does he intend to fly it out, something to do with frost.

Sounds like a poorly planned flight, the kind that leads to newspaper headlines and insurance premium loadings.


Another point raised

“who is likely to carry out a sucessful forced landing - a tailwheel strip flyer or a club PA28/152 driver? “

My money is on the spamcan driver training under the watchful eye of his instructor, and the aircraft owner who will insist that said spancan driver remains current under the watchful eye of his instructor.




Dives for (insurance) cover…..


Sultan Ismail

Hairyplane described the event in a deliberately jocular manner, but this doesn't mean that his friend didn't think carefully about making the landing or act prudently in executing it. I can't see any reason to assume that it was not done carefully and well. On this basis, I say hurrah also.

Where is this paragon of rented spamcannical virtue to whom the previous post refers? Is he the same bloke who gripes endlessly about having to fly with an instructor for (gasp!) a whole hour every (shocker!) two years? Actually, I've noticed that this griping thankfully seems to have died out, here at least: does it still go on in the magazines or other fora?

Cobblers.

We've seen lots of postings from 'mainstream' trained PPLs wondering what it's like to land on licenced grass airfields. There are lots of people out there who haven't felt what it's like and who's closest experience of a landing off tarmac is when their instructor breaks off a PFL with the immortal words "I think we'd have walked away from that one".

These (IMHO) are the sorts of people who freak out when the donk stops and they can't see 2 miles of tarmac in front of them.

So what if the friendly banter turned into a friendly bet? That can be the best sort of banter and definitely the best sort of bet. Provided the banter wasn't fuelled by any recreational drugs to affect risk assessment I can't see a problem with it. It was his skin, and his Auster.

Our insurance premiums are hiked up by nosewheel collapses and religious nuts topping themselves, not by people (whispers it) having fun .

Sheesh


Steve R

I think it is a great story, brings us back to the 'golden' days of Aviation. This is how private flying should be, just get in the machine for a jolly jaunt across the country, pick a field to land in for lunch, maybe drop down to 300' above the ground for a bit of sight-seeing, and when you finally reach you destination you dive bomb your friends on the ground for a low fly past....If you bend your machine, you fix it yourself.........ah well, back to the rules and regs.....

EA:D

How big is HPs front garden? Just guessing...but I bet it depends, especially if you happen to live on a FARM! :D

Oh mind the old radio mast if you're anywhere nearby. ;)

I think some of us are being a little harsh given the information we have. We do not know how long the area was. We do not know if the Auster pilot had walked the strip, if he was a friend, he may have been considering this for some years.

Why jump to the worst possible conclusion? He did not bend it, and he may have been well inside his capabilities. I prefer to think he had some fun, and assume it was properly done until evidence emerges it was not. If everyone who does something out of the ordinary is shot down the moment they post we will have a very boring forum.

One last point, I am building a Tri gear, which will give most Austers a hard time on the STOL front. Short field is not just the preserve of vintage taildraggers, things have moved on.

Rod

I was going to say what Rod said (except for the bit about building some crate or other), but he said it first. Why rush to condemn without knowing the details? Austers and the like are well adapted for landing on short and rough areas. I have a friend in the country whose "front garden" could certainly accomodate a STOL type. Perhaps hairyplane's garden is similar.

Maybe because some peoples lives lack sufficient drama, so they drum it up!?

Just stirring ;) I thought it was a great yarn myself!

Andy

A bit of fun
 

Well well well!

I'll let this thread run for a bit and then let you have more detail. I'd let you have it now but I am in a rush!

Applause already though for those who correctly concluded that my visitor was doing nothing wrong and nothing illegal.


HP

My spamcan C.182 will give Austers & Maules a run for their money in short field ops!!

I'll have to pop down t'road to just see...

What's that? A 12-bore? "Gerrof moi land!" ;)

I concour with HP

Whats the point in getting a licence and just going to le 2k every weekend

Get out and do something wit ya PPL

Lets throw your mate a party!


" Stand back light your pipe and admire your handy work!!!! "

I'm sure HP's pal thought it through first. Let's face it, any flat bit of grass 200m long with no serious obstructions is relatively easy for an Auster with a pilot current on short strip operations. If there's a good breeze down the strip you can shorten this significantly.

Good on the Auster bloke, it's what they were designed for. :D

Where is this garden of yours HP ;)

No room in aviation for show-offs, but there should be plenty of room for people to enjoy themselves.

True - we don't know the details. But....:

• Hairyplane's garden can't be all that small (compared to mine at least..... )
• An Auster will land safely in a very small field. A friend of mine used to fly Austers in the Army. If I believe even a fraction of the stories that he tells me, an Auster will land in an exceptionally short field!
• Landing safely in a short field really isn't a big deal if you've practised a bit. I know a lot of pilots who recently went and landed at a new "airfield" that is 170m long, with a curved final approach and no possibility of going around. None of them had been there before. None of them had any trouble, and most have been back several times since. They're all much more skilled than me - but if you have the ability the experience and are in current practice, it can be done quite safely.

If I remember correctly, Mussolini would have approved…

Rod

Goodo..............
 

Way to go!

I just wished my garden was big enough to fly anything but an eggbeater in and out off.

:(

I'd love to have a house with a strip. Have a BBQ every weekend so that my mates could pitch up in their mounts stay the night and fly off again after a good cooked breakfast.

In Holland you can not even fly into your own field! No matter what the size!

:eek:

Enjoy!

FD

As an ex-skydive pilot you would be surprised at the size of the fields which we landed spam-cans in........
Dont judge this guy until you know the length of the field and his experience level........

Mutt