TonyS Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 The farmer whose farm I live on has very kindly offered to lay me a runway in his wheat field. I have a few problems though... The prevailing wind direction is over a hill down a bank, over the barn and riding school and into the field behind my house. In other words, take off is generally going to be towards the fence / barn / riding school (hedge). Similarly landings are going to be very 'interesting' if I don't get it down quickly enough. How much space should I be asking him to give me. (My gut feel is as much as he can but then there will be the cost of the grass seed and the upkeep). An alternative is to lay the runway cross wind which to me is just a no-no. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Essjay Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Hi Tony,Any chance of posting a Google Maps pic so we can get a rough idea of the lie of the land? Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve W-O Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 What about the opposite side of the field? Maybe about 100' by 300', or a 300' circle, then you can land/takeoff against the wind where ever it comes from Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Cotsford Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 "300' circle" - makes our 20'*60' strip seem a little inadequate, seems even smaller when the surrounding grass grows to form a high boundary to be cleared! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve W-O Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Posted by Bob Cotsford on 02/04/2011 14:23:34:"300' circle" - makes our 20'*60' strip seem a little inadequate, seems even smaller when the surrounding grass grows to form a high boundary to be cleared! Our is about a 200' circle, he did say the bigger the better Many people I have watched wouldn't have a hope of landing on a patch 20' X 60', and i think that my Mentor without flaps would be quite hard to land there, that's almost a back garden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Smith 7 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 What are you flying from the strip? Surely that's an important factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flytilbroke Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 One of oue sites is about 65 yrds by 8 yrds, surrounded by an electric fence. We, as often only open the ends of the fence for up to 6o inch models. Unless the turbulance or larger models warrants the dropping of the far side of the 'leccy fence, models still need to land on the runway or hit the arrestor wires Our other site "Sunday only" site is about the same size and surrounded by rough pasture including the cow pats and mole heaps which we leave to nature. The runway gets looked after. We can make it a bit longer at need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James40 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Tony, it's going to take a good while to get it established, many evenings of watering and rolling to get a farmers field converted to a grass strip!! Would he be up for a tarmac strip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 One thing to watch. Wind coming over a barn can give tremendous down drafts. We had a small field with a barn and when the wind came over the barn a hand launched model was blown onto the ground a few feet in front of the launcher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James40 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Go for the cross wind runway! Cross wind landing is 'fun' The two ways I know of doing it are bring it in crabbed then last minute give it lots of rudder and be ready to catch the wing dropping with lots of aileron, or, cross controlled with rudder and aileron held in all the way down, a real handful trying to balance rudder, throttle, aileron and elevator all in one go ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bravedan Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Or........fly a Helicopter, they don't need runways. Or a H9 Tango, Cougar 2000 or Fusion, neither do they!! Our strip has mature trees both ends, dips away one end, and after the annual rolling is as fast as an ice rink. You adapt............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Cotsford Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Posted by Steve W-O on 02/04/2011 14:47:53:Many people I have watched wouldn't have a hope of landing on a patch 20' X 60', and i think that my Mentor without flaps would be quite hard to land there, that's almost a back garden a small back garden at that! Could be why our club tends towards hand-launched models or ones with springy u/c. TBH the mown strip is only essential for taking off, the long grass is only really a problem for bipes/tripes on landing as they tend to trip up. Everything else just slows down quickly.Right now the whole no2 field that we can access at present is to all intent and purpose one big strip after being grazed through winter, you just need to watch out for the tussocks.One club I used to belong to had a mown area something like 30 yards by 50, that was luxury! I'd say around 10 yards by 20 would be a good compromise, even better an L shape with 10 * 20 yard legs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Our strip is a "variable feast". We fly from the country park, the whole field is mowned - so technically you could land anywhere! Here is an aerial view: The problem is we share it with the general public so have to mark out the strip with four red corner flags - so its never exactly the same size, or even position, two days running. The red line on the map gives the nominal position - the prevaling wind is NW and this picture has North at the top. I suppose typically the strip we mark out is about 60-80 yards long and about 30-40 yards wide. You can see that the tree line at the bottom of the picture can make approaches "challenging" with a fast model BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Member Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazygit Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Taking off towards a riding school is very not nice if you get a problem and have to land ahead. I wouldn't do it. Better to learn to cope with cross winds than cross riders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyS Posted April 8, 2011 Author Share Posted April 8, 2011 Hi Chaps, Thanks for all the thoughts.... First I should say that I was hoping to use it for bungee launched jets - the Yak 23 (which is ready to go again and the Gloster G40. Plus landing lots of hand launched stuff from Twister to Blizzard. Finally, hoping to get my IC trainer into the air. A pic of the site shows the problem.... The yellow border is roughly where I could put the runway and the red line shows the wind direction (it blows left to right mostly). The red line is exactly 100 yds long. The dark line running top to btm on the left of the yellow area is a post and rail fence. There is a hedge along the border of the sand school. The light square on the left is the barn (low) and the sand school (above). The banks on the left of the pic are quite steep slopes.Edited By TonyS on 08/04/2011 22:58:01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Member Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve W-O Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Pity it couldn't be in the bottom right hand corner of the same field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyS Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 The banks are a good two houses high -I'm guessing 40feet plus. Yes, it's shame I can't move the location but it's to fit behind my house which is new and not in the pic. (Just btw the big trees and the driveway that passes the stables). I don't think he minds putting it behind my house but doesn't want to put it behind the neighbours which is fair.I guess that in relatively high wind there would be a fair downdraught coming off the hill though I haven't really suffered from it so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyS Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 I also should mention that the slight shadow right at the top edge of the pic in the field is an electricity supply pole! So being in the btm rh corner would put me under the wires... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.