I did a reverse approach: found the property first, then built the strip and then tried landing with a few STOL planes. I ended up buying an Aeroprakt/Foxbat A22. Attached a video of the first landing...

Statler wrote:I did a reverse approach: found the property first, then built the strip and then tried landing with a few STOL planes. I ended up buying an Aeroprakt/Foxbat A22. Attached a video of the first landing...

That was both close, and impressive. No long drawn out finals on that strip.

Thanks. I had another 20 ft left. The runway is around 650 ft but there were still some trees which I will have to cut down to make the approach a bit easier. Right now it is just 180m or 600 ft long and I am currently bringing more earth to fill up another 90 feet. It is approximately on sea level, so I am sure this strip and this plane on higher altitudes would not go together well. Thorough testing of the plane on a similar strip at the altitude he wants is the only option, it seems from my perspective

We are still working on/considering this opportunity and were out there yesterday walking the property. There have been some issues we will need to work through if we move forward but it is reasonably likely that if we do purchase the property we could gain access to the pasture to the south which would make a 1200ft runway possible. However, I thought power lines only ran along the road that goes east/west but power lines also run along the north/south road. That boxes the south end of the would be runway in pretty tightly. I don't really want to be flying that close to power lines every takeoff and landing.


Looking north from the south property line.


Looking south along what would be the runway extension on the neighbors property.

Nice looking spot!

It is less desirable with those powerlines. But I have a friend who has the same set-up almost exactly, a tight 1200ft with powerlines at one end, trees at the other from memory. He a member here and flies an A185F from that strip, so there's room for a Bearhawk too.

Also, you could pay to underground the lines... gulp.... ($$,$$$)

As Battson mentioned, you could see aboutgetting that power line buried. I had to pay to have one buried on my strip. They (Power Company) was very accommodating with my request. But then they were taking my money to do it also. LOL

It is a pretty cool property which is the main reason we are looking at it. Price is right too. Our main holdup is that my wife would have to commute to work.

I have no doubt that burying both sets of lines would be prohibitively expensive but maybe burying just the small N/S line would be affordable and that would give me an escape route if I needed one.

The trees on the north end of the strip would be cut down so that end would be clear.

Hey Whee, I'm the guy Battson mentioned above. I have power wires at both ends of my strip and it's short. I bought the place knowing I had access to two very close local strips so I often load and unload the family from those to save going in or out of mine unnecessarily heavy. Even though the POH tells me I can get out at MAUW, I've simply made it easy to load elsewhere so there's no excuse to push it with pax. You can do a lot of shuffling for the cost of putting wires under!
The trick is to respect and accept it for what it is and be prepared to land elsewhere if conditions aren't favorable - no place for get home itis. I have two wind directions I just cannot land in, luckily uncommon winds for most of my flying. Once you have accepted your home strip limitations and have that well entrenched in your psyche it's all good.
Its great to be able to walk out of your house and into your hangar.

Battson's Bearhawk is one of only 3 visiting aircraft land on my strip in the 7 years I've been here. So not good if you're into having visiting pilots come stay.

We are trying to iron out the final details but the amount of work the house is going to require is starting to weigh on me. I'm not sure I want to remodel another house. The good thing is the local housing market is up so we'd likely be able to sell our current house for enough to pay cash for this one...that's really enticing. We'd still have to mortgage the remodel though.

I've worked out a land use exchange with my wife's uncle which would make the runway 1200ft long and would be available when the cows aren't in the pasture (cows are in the pasture approximately 3 out of ten days). He also said I could use the field to the north at least 6 months out of the year. It would make a good ski strip in the winter time.

I've walked the potential strip a few times now. There are two small ditches that will be easy to deal with. The north 600ft is sandy and has about a 3% grade. The slope is a positive IMO but the sand isn't good. It's not all sand but there is enough sand that if you drove a pickup through it you'd tear up the grass and would need to be in 4wd.

I've basically determined that this is a poor location for a landing strip so I'm trying to not factor it into the decision. On the flip side, this is likely the only property in our area that fits our budget and may fit a runway.

I went flying with a friend and took this video of a low approach (to the north) over the potential strip. We stayed pretty high over the power lines, ~50ft. I think it looks doable and actually usable. The guy I was riding with said, "Well, that isn't for me. I'll stay high and wave." All the trees that are in path of the runway can be removed.

Short-ish, but certainly wouldn't be a problem. Not on a day with appropriate weather.
Strong crosswinds and a full load on board would make it feel a lot shorter.

There's a lot of airstrips out there that are do-able...under the right conditions.
Under the wrong conditions, they can become marginal or even unusable.
IMHO the danger with using an "everything-just-right" strip for your home base
is that you will be tempted to use it even when the conditions do not warrant that use--
esp if there isn't a better alternative nearby.
Sometimes that works out OK....and sometimes it doesn't.

The thing I have going for me is that around here the winds are pretty predictable. They are out of the north in the fall/winter and out of the south in the spring/summer. Highest wind days are in the spring and fall. The hay field to the north would be available for a alternate except during growing season and the city/county airport is 5 miles away. Since flying over my opinion has changed. I don't think is it's an "everything-just-right" strip but obviously my friend disagrees.

hotrod180 wrote:IMHO the danger with using an "everything-just-right" strip for your home base
is that you will be tempted to use it even when the conditions do not warrant that use

One should be cautious, and your warning is on the money, but it's also true that the safe operating parameters for a given pilot can indeed change. They can change because they get more hours. They can change because the pilots knows the plane better. They can change because the pilot knows the area better.

Any of those changing in a favorable direction can, and should - IMO, be a green light for the pilot to reevaluate and see if the strip is still "everything-just-right" for them.