Its that time of year again. Those amber waves of grain and grass seed are being harvested. Last year I fell a couple of dead trees in to the wheat field and used my pickup to "skid" them over to where I planned to cut up fire wood for the winter. The farmer that rents the land had harvested the wheat and had then mowed the stubble right down to the ground a few weeks later. This left loose mowed stubble, and chaf on the ground. ( No, I am not talking about
standing wheat stubble ) I hooked up to my truck to pull the small cedar logs away and promptly began to spin my tires like I was on ice. After work was done, I decided to do a little brake and steering test. I'll use aviation terms such as "Good, Fair, Poor, and Nil". Steering was Fair to Poor depending on how much loose mowed stubble was under the tires at that particular moment and place of the field. Braking was Poor.
It didn't take much to lock up the brakes and slide.
Seeing how a Pizza Fly-in was due in two weeks, I made sure to alert my guests to plan accordingly with landing distance and braking. All had a good time and comments on the slickness were noticed.
I just wanted to pass this along to you that its is not the same as landing on a turf airstrip, as the blades of grass are anchored in to the dirt with roots. I talking about landing on loose material that reduces your effective braking dramatically.
Keep that in mind, and be safe out there.
Thanks for reading.
