I'm planning a trip to/near Passadena this summer and would like to stop at some grass strips in the area. Route is from Albuquerque. Any advise as to what's around.

Arnold Bronson
Rans S7

We have quite a few genuine desert dirt and dust strips near SoCal, but not any actual grass that I know about. There is a real nice grass strip in Northern California (Columbia, O22 I believe), and several private strips in the San Joaquin Valley that have grass, but those will be pretty far out of your way. Coming through I-40 from the CA border at Needles and all the way in to the LA area, it's all pretty much desert.

Desert dirt and dust ok, afterall, it's what i'm used to in NM.

Arnold

Not too much grass here except in front yards, golf courses and parks.KRIR has a portion they claim is a "grass strip but it's rougher than hell they're trying to kill all the gophers but I guess those little devils have a fantastic sex life

Nice to know somebody has

But it is sex with a gopher! how much lower can you go.

The last actual grass strip I knew of was the old Medowlark strip near Huntington Beach. Sadly, I suspect it is now a cluster of Starbucks and Gap stores. Grass is not really a big thing in SoCal, something to do with a lack of water I think. I was just up in Portland picking up the 185 and it is grass strip heaven up there.

Gopher it

The only remaining public grass strip in CA is Frazier Lake (1C9) up near Monterey. But it's worth the trip! They keep it real nice.

C.

Frazier Lake is actually just south of San Jose. Be sure to use the grass one. The other one is damp.

There is also one at Columbia, I do not try to keep up with all the designators.
Be careful taking off to the west on a hot day, the hill at the end is not always as easy to clear as it looks.

There is one more I know of up on the north side of the Klamath river, but you would need a thurough check out. Some day I will learn how to post a picture of it from the diving platform.

Cheers

Chris C

OK So I'm no longer restricting my self to grass, just other than pavement.

Arnold

good info so far thank's

Magnet wrote:OK So I'm no longer restricting my self to grass, just other than pavement.

Arnold

good info so far thank's

Lots of dirt strips --- going down I-40 land at Quartzite ,AZ for a "swap meet extravaganza " .

Magnet wrote:I'm planning a trip to/near Passadena this summer and would like to stop at some grass strips in the area. Route is from Albuquerque. Any advise as to what's around.

Arnold Bronson
Rans S7

In Pasadena the Rose Bowl comes to mind. You can land once. Saw a photo of a crazy man that landed at the local football field in Austin, NV with his super cub.

Tim

Yeah, like you don't need a parachute to sky dive unless you want to do it more than once.

Magnet wrote:Yeah, like you don't need a parachute to sky dive unless you want to do it more than once.

"If at first you don't succeed, try try again" is not in their creed.

Hey Dogpilot,
You're dating yourself bringing up Meadowlark's grass strip. I used to land my '46 champ on it all the time in the 70's and turn right into my parking spot. The owner sold out in 89 to real estate developers and all the great times there were done. You can google meadowlark airport for some videos. What a great place to learn to fly!

Yeah, my socks are form the last century. I grew up in Laguna, but when it was mostly populated by artists, the strange and a few aerospace engineers, like my dad. It was a small town, isolated with a population of under 4,000. Now it is something like 36,000 posers and costs something like a $1 a minute to breath. So Medolark was home turf. One of the booby prizes of slipping out of the draft sideways into NROTC at UCLA was free flying lessons, courtesy of the Navy. So we would go to Santa Monica and check out a plane and fly down the coast, remember, you could do that then, Medowlark was laid back, so was the old strip along the river in Capistrano (now houses). Orange County was still a bit laid back, but kind of busy, even back then. Although mostly Twin Otters from Golden West Airlines. (which in later years I bought two of from the bankruptcy and took them to Honduras).

So now when I have to fly into the great southland, I go down to San Clemente. They let the Birddog park free there, put it up front on display. Only problem is it is a bit of a hike to get back to the old homestead in Laguna. Last time I went into Martin Aviation at SNA they wanted something like $40 a night to park! Anybody have any idea what the clowns charge now? I have never been back. San Clemente has one big disadvantage, no jet fuel, so I can't get gas for the Caravan. It can make the round trip on one tank, but it is tight. The Dog takes almost as much time to fly as it does to drive. Now that I have a 185 again, it may change the dynamic.

dogpilot wrote:Yeah, my socks are form the last century. I grew up in Laguna, but when it was mostly populated by artists, the strange and a few aerospace engineers, like my dad. It was a small town, isolated with a population of under 4,000. Now it is something like 36,000 posers and costs something like a $1 a minute to breath. So Medolark was home turf. One of the booby prizes of slipping out of the draft sideways into NROTC at UCLA was free flying lessons, courtesy of the Navy. So we would go to Santa Monica and check out a plane and fly down the coast, remember, you could do that then, Medowlark was laid back, so was the old strip along the river in Capistrano (now houses). Orange County was still a bit laid back, but kind of busy, even back then. Although mostly Twin Otters from Golden West Airlines. (which in later years I bought two of from the bankruptcy and took them to Honduras).

So now when I have to fly into the great southland, I go down to San Clemente. They let the Birddog park free there, put it up front on display. Only problem is it is a bit of a hike to get back to the old homestead in Laguna. Last time I went into Martin Aviation at SNA they wanted something like $40 a night to park! Anybody have any idea what the clowns charge now? I have never been back. San Clemente has one big disadvantage, no jet fuel, so I can't get gas for the Caravan. It can make the round trip on one tank, but it is tight. The Dog takes almost as much time to fly as it does to drive. Now that I have a 185 again, it may change the dynamic.

Where is an airport/airstrip in San Clemente? (if you don't mind me asking)

Duh, meant Oceanside. I wish there was one in San Clemente. It was on my mind all day, my brother wants to move down from Anchorage to San Clemente, so all day, San Clemente, San Clemente. So my damaged brain relocated the airstrip.

We had a damaged brain try to relocate our airport a few years ago. Called himself a county supervisor. He moved on to the state senate, damaged brain intact.

dogpilot wrote:Duh, meant Oceanside. I wish there was one in San Clemente. It was on my mind all day, my brother wants to move down from Anchorage to San Clemente, so all day, San Clemente, San Clemente. So my damaged brain relocated the airstrip.

I see. I was almost thinking your were talking about the private dirt strip east of San Clemente.