Officially used our new ranch airstrip and hangar to bring the M5 home!


The next step is to do some mountain flying training and test our ability to get in and out of our place in New Mexico. Plan to do some density altitude flights at 52NM Timberon (6940 MSL) and get familiar with how the M5 performs in the thinner air.

Very nice! I've always to be able to keep the plane in a hangar near the house; the ultimate in convenience.

Very cool, congrats!

Delta Romeo,

I hope ATC has reconsidered their terminology, but I have been advised White Sands was "open" or "closed" by ABQ Center. Open or closed for whom? I crossed a lot going to and from the Pecos Valley and Las Cruces. I always demanded to hear the military terminology, "hot" or "cold," which is not confusing. They often fussed a bit, but when they considered it, they always gave me a hot or cold.

Contact

McGregor Range is labeled as Restricted and of the folks I've spoke with highly recommend GPS to stay out of trouble. We use ForeFlight which provides the same feature, and should allow is to navigate without being mistaken for a range toy . I know some folks that live up there too and have driven through there years ago (great hunting) prior to 9-11.

Be sure to do it several times as the TEMPERATURE rises.
I have been to strips where it was not advised to depart after 65* in a 180 etc.

Other than that - best of luck - or should it be best of practices?!?
Trim

First off CONGRATS Gotta love having your own plane in your own hangar at your own strip

A couple thoughts.. Don't know if you've been to Timberon before, but in case you haven't, I wouldn't get overly concerned about staying legal… The corridor coming from the El Paso side is so narrow your right wing will literally be over the road until you get to Alamogordo, then it's up the southern drainage straight east of ALM till you intercept the road to 52NM. I have owned a couple spots on the strip there since long before GPS, and never given getting there a second thought. I also can't remember the last time I was given the OK across the range which coming from my side would make life a TON easier / quicker.

Also, bear in mind that the strip in Timeberon kinda sits in a bowl. That means repeated ops echo like no tomorrow… This sound is not likely to be offensive to you or I, but the pilot owners at Timberon are the extreme minority. Ton's of people live adjacent to the airstrip that would just as soon see it become a park.

And lastly, don't put too much stock in any 'density altitude practice' you do at Timberon unless your practice schedule is four months out. Just shooting quick numbers from the hip, if you were there this saturday at NOON, the DA at the field is still going to be 900' below field elevation… Not much of a challenge there for even a Tcart or J3.

Take care, Rob

And remember, in the desert you can stay in ground effect until you get to some obstruction, God or man made.

contactflying wrote:...... I have been advised White Sands was "open" or "closed" by ABQ Center. Open or closed for whom? I crossed a lot going to and from the Pecos Valley and Las Cruces. I always demanded to hear the military terminology, "hot" or "cold," which is not confusing....

There are a couple military areas right near me (R-6701 and A-680) and the Navy will generally refer to them as being hot or cold. Sometimes as "active", but I've never heard inactive, open, or closed.
I've also called McChord AFB near Tacoma and asked about their restricted areas (R-6703 A B C & D) and they generally respond with hot or cold.

I'd suggest keeping ground situational awareness handy; Holloman AFB frequently has exercises which involve jamming GPS for a 300 nm radius! The GPS coordinates on your Foreflight may not always be accurate. Be sure and check GPS in the navigational NOTAMS.

In a former life my work had me cover all of Texas and New Mexico behind a windshield. What is interesting to me is that familiarity has been very useful as a pilot now, even at night. It takes some observation for the perspective to arise but once it does I can't imagine getting lost unless I loose visibility of the landmarks. My DPE failed a student for admitting he was lost on his check ride; there's a massive quarry and a large lake near the airport where he conducts the exams . Using ForeFlight has been reliable and for redundancy I compare results using the VOR: on 3 occasions the VOR has been wrong and would have guided us off course by a significant amount. As I have read it, the FAA is allowing a lot of the VOR's to die since much of GA is transitioning to GPS type navigational aids. I like the convenience of GPS but I will always have my ground reference.

Here's some video of the first couple of take off's/landings:

https://vimeo.com/154246995

The rollouts are a lot shorter now than this video with the newer style flap ratchet from Maule. Took the wife up and back for a couple laps tonight; her first time operating from the ranch. Next we're working on elevator gap seals

Excellent! Looks just a little bumpy, but looks good!

Is there any way you can smooth out your strip, and if so what are the steps? I've never tried to make an airstrip, pure curiosity on my part.

CamTom,

It would take a motor grader to fix the rolling bumps better than I can with a homemade drag I have behind the tractor. I have tried to con a neighbor into renting me his but he's not interested. I figure any off airport ops I get involved with will be as bumpy and that is why we bought the Maule. As I develop the skill it becomes more apparent that ANY 500' clearing is an airport to me . Maule says this plane can get off in 200' but I'm not there yet but getting close. When we were plane shopping short and rough capabilities were the requirement. Would really have liked to have gone experimental but nothing short of a Bearhawk would do but I didn't have six figures to put in the project. The Maule does it all and was a lot more affordable. I'm really liking this plane!

There wasn't a lot of steps in preparing for the strip other than clearing the brush in our case. It is blackland gumbo clay that is nasty sticky when muddy but if I can keep the turf healthy on it it shouldn't be an issue. We had a REALLY bad infestation of feral hogs that keep the ranch destroyed for years until we finally fenced them out. It is showing some encouraging signs of a good recovery from that issue since we have been getting some good rains post drought. Here is a doc that the State of Texas developed but oddly enough can only be found on a State of Montana website :

https://www.mdt.mt.gov/aviation/docs/sample-texas-design-guide.pdf

It goes into pretty good detail and if you plan to register your strip it seems to be a relatively easy endeavor through the FAA web portal.

Officially used our new ranch airstrip and hangar to bring the M5 home!

Is this a top secret location?? You could invite a few flying friends or future flying friends , over to stand around a fire and talk flying....or something similar.

DeltaRomeo wrote:...The rollouts are a lot shorter now than this video with the newer style flap ratchet from Maule. ....

What's different about them vs the older style?

Keep it short and bumpy, less work to maintain it, more importantly good practice plus you can brag about how screwed up it is like I do with my 400' strip at 5640". "It;s not very long, but its narrow", is one way I have fun in describing mine. No problem for Utah Maule BTW.

Hotrod: The newer style flap ratchet provides more flap angle 20-40• vs 15-35•. It is part of the TC now so not much of a mod but allows some slower approaches. Plus I'm hitting my mark more precisely and with less bounce so the brakes work better.

Schwarz: Not top secret but we do have to make sure the cattle and horses are out of the way (buzzing them only makes them come right back ). It is a tricky approach, too. It is about 800' with about 650' "rollable". The debris (rocks, sticks) is cleared from the strip which is about 15' wide, so your marksmanship best be good (its a ranch...)