I'm looking at some land about 20 miles west of Laramie along I-80 to build a strip and summer home on. Anyone know anything about this area? Am I crazy? Summer flying decent in this area? I've heard of the Wyoming winds.
Thanks
Greg

It is too cold and windy for me and I am from Montana. On the good side, if you like open country (and I do) and if you like to do long range shooting (and I do) and if you like lots of NF / BLM land (and I do) it is awesome. The Saratoga area is nice, the mountains 20 miles west of Laramie have some great elk hunting, hiking and riding. Life should be pretty good....

Do it....If it's too windy on any day, don't fly...I live on an airpark...I would like to have my own strip...Airparks seem to be asshole magnets and rule enforcers...Not really for me...

I fly slow and low in that area all of the time. I can give you my impression of it from the perspective of an underpowered J3 if you like?

motosix wrote:I fly slow and low in that area all of the time. I can give you my impression of it from the perspective of an underpowered J3 if you like?

That would be great!

Never mind. I just found out the property has ccr's even out in the middle of no where.

See...?? The assholes and rule makers beat you there...
They are a difficult bunch to get ahead of...

Flymac wrote:See...?? The assholes and rule makers beat you there...
They are a difficult bunch to get ahead of...

You nailed it. I stopped reading any further into the CCR's when I got to the point about ATV use being limited not to - but ON your own property.

Curious what land you were actually looking at. There is a whole bunch of land west of Laramie that isn't subject to anything but incessant wind, and snow and bitter cold in the winter. When I lived there, I did one subdivision south of Laramie with covenants, but we purposely kept it pretty loose--and pretty clearly it's not the one you were thinking about.

Besides my college and law school years at the University of Wyoming, I lived in Laramie from 1973 to 1996, instructing and SE charter flying from the mid-70s to later 80s. Almost all of my flying years, other than the 6 months from the time I started training in Alaska until I left the USAF, have been in the high country. Most of my SE charters were in Wyoming and northern Colorado, with a couple east as far as eastern Iowa. So I can give you a pretty fair perspective of what you can expect.

Flying in the high country is a bit different from lowland flying. The thread from Shadow Aviator about running a 172 in the mountains has some good discussion. But essentially, the performance you're accustomed to in the lowlands just isn't there in the high country. That means that that great short field capability you're accustomed to with the Husky is compromised, as well as its climb capacity. Yet it's something one gets accustomed to, when you do it enough. It just requires more planning and thinking about what you want to do.

Specifically in the Laramie area, you are dealing with almost constant wind, so you have to be pretty good at handling crosswinds, as it seldom lines up with runways. What I've told many people is that the maximum demonstrated crosswind capability of their airplane is just a guideline, and their own crosswind capability has to be more than that, if they're going to fly regularly in the Laramie area. Even an airport such as Laramie's, with its runways in an X pattern (21-3, 30-12) often has the wind splitting the runways. Many other airstrips in Wyoming are single runways, and they hardly ever line up with the wind. When you have a 35 knot gusty wind quartering off the runway, you have to be on your A game, and that means most of the time.

Cary

The apparent rate of closure approach to angle across from the downwind corner to the upwind big airplane touchdown zone marking works well in those conditions. Also, making upwind base to final lines one right up with this more oriented into the wind touchdown zone. First give way to all other traffic.

FAR is much more tolerant than most of our peers. Do the safer thing and say, "you're probably right" repeatedly afterwards.

gregwyatt wrote:

Flymac wrote:See...?? The assholes and rule makers beat you there...
They are a difficult bunch to get ahead of...

You nailed it. I stopped reading any further into the CCR's when I got to the point about ATV use being limited not to - but ON your own property.

What is wrong with this world!!! We don't need more regulations or regulators- Airparks (and airports too for that matter) should be bastions of freedom... not frigging incubators for regulators!!

Try southern Idaho, maybe Bear Lake County or southwest Wyoming, excluding Jackson. Thats what we did. We don't have our own strip but Summers are paradise and weather is a little more agreeable than Laramie. We come up here a bunch in the winter too. Lots of ATV options as well.

Good luck