Excellent information. Thanks for sharing!

I think I have three grass landings in 25 years - and the first was after 15 years of flying. I too had built up this fear of landing on grass and was very surprised how soft and easy it was. I'm obviously no expert on the subject but I can say I was very nervous during my first landing. I would not want the first time I had to land on grass be a real emergency. That would just add more stress to an already difficult situation. Since I'm finishing up my 601 shortly I hope to do a lot more grass landings! Good post.

Gary

Our runway has nothing but grass.  Other than a variation in traction and smoothness I have not noticed any real difference.  Also the only warning I have ever received when renting was not landing on unimproved surfaces.  Do you know how hard it is to find a surface that has not been improved.  Never seen mention of grass.  I learned to fly at Oliver Farms in Ft. Worth, TX.  Its runway was a combination of dirt, gravel and yes even some of that dangerous grass.  :-)

Great post! I didn't get to do any grass field operations until I moved to Mexico MO back in '99 and finished up my flight training with the late Howard Wehrman. His short grass strip (and ventures into even shorter strips for 'short field' work) taught me a lot, and I really appreciate having had that experience. Of course, once I moved back to Austin, the grass field options went away. Someday I hope to have my own grass field!

Great write-up John! Interesting story, I first learned of Zenith and got interested in experimental homebuilt aircraft after noticing a grass strip on the way to the summer house one summer. Apparently the military used it once or twice a year for exercises and it wasn't in the most tip top shape yet still recognizable as a grass/dirt strip to knowing eyes. I imagined Friday afternoon trips from work to the airport, getting in my own plane, taking off for the summer house. I imagined about 15 minutes before touching down, I would call my wife to come with the trailer, and Sunday evening I would make the trip back to town for another week of work.

Thats why I am doing a ch750,here in Ireland (Europe generally they have these things called landing fees hit you for 10 euros a pop even touch n go's whereas at unlicensed fields aka grass that does not apply so much, runways = expense as if avgas at  @€2.73 a litre was not enough people wonder why GA is dying not rocket science.

After suffering wind damage a few years back I went in search of an affordable hanger option, that turned out to be at a grass strip. With the aforementioned reluctance of flying clubs to allow grass operations the first few landings were somewhat tense. After 3 years I don't think twice about landing on the grass and have explored other grass strips in the area. New horizons have been opened for me and my 601HDS.

There is also good news from the local flying club, they now allow grass operations and have included our grass strip in their annual poker derby.

And don't forget that (here in the northeast) grass becomes an unplowed snow field in winter, the ultimate soft field experience on skis (especially in a 701) where you have to drag your own runway  by making repeated low passes long enough so you can take off after landing

We are hosting the 2016 "Grass is a Gas" Poker run at Brainerd Minnesota on June 11.  Fly to 4 other grass strips and pickup a card at each and play your hand back at Brainerd.  Great prizes for top hands and numerous door prizes too!  If you are in the area, join us to fly the lakes area and some great grass strips!!  More information call Mike @612-750-2981

I'll take a grass strip any day. I was lucky, I trained at a time when grass was part of the curriculum at my flight school, obviously long ago. After I built the 701 I got used to it on the asphalt and then landed at my farm, which took 3 attempts, and I've never looked back. When going on a cross country I'll look for grass strips vs. asphalt for fuel stops. The problem I had was getting insurance coverage because my airfield was grass and only 1320' long, my first carrier dropped me but Falcon was able to get another underwriter and my premiums have gone down each year. Guess they figure I'm more experienced each year, lol.

I was very tense practicing Touch n Goes with my instructor, figuring the grass strip was too short and soft.  I knew it was going to swallow up the Cherokee.  We did a full stop to debrief prior to continuing.  We were closely followed by a Canadian Forces - Buffalo aircraft practicing Touch and Goes on the grass. I guess it was safe for the Cherokee

Did my primary training back in the early 1980's and flew off grass more often than not in fact my second solo was from a 1200 ft grass stripTheres still a lot of grass fields in NJ. Md. and De

The flight school where I did most of my training has a fairly wide grass and gravel runway with a narrow strip of asphalt down the middle.  The narrow asphalt surrounded by grass/gravel gives the opportunity to practice different surface behavior and makes you get good at staying on the centerline, all without having to ferry the plane to another airport.  To make the learning experience even better, there were about ten other airports/landing strips within a twenty mile radius which provided a range from fully paved municipal airports to semi-improved farm landing strips.  It was a great school to learn to fly a Citabria at and made me far less nervous about landing my 701 at less than ideal strips.