04.11.08
“I don’t think we’re insured for that…”
I’ve been having way too much fun lately.
See, it all started when I told one of my students we could go wherever he wanted for his cross country training.
“My buddy’s dad owns a little private strip a ways from here, you think we could go there for one of our flights?” he asked.
“Sure, yeah, that sounds good,” I said, always one to encourage having fun with a plane. “Just make sure to find out how long it is and if the grass is in good enough shape to go in at this time of year.”
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On the morning of our planned trip I asked my student about the strip again. “So can we make it in there?”
“Yep, it’s long enough, about half a mile long my buddy says, and the ground isn’t too soft.”
“Ok, great, where is it on the chart?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s not charted. I know where it is though. My buddy’s dad used to fly cropdusters off of it. It’s just to the southwest of this little town,” my student explained, pointing to the chart.
“Oh…ok. Cool.”
But on the inside I was thinking, “Haha, great, what am I getting myself into? Well, can’t hurt to take a look…”
After computing takeoff and landing distance data because my student’s girlfriend was riding along, off we went.
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55 miles later we rolled over Plettner’s Aero Spraying Field. I guess that’s what they call it. At least that’s the name of the company, even if it’s not printed on any charts anywhere.
We made two low passes to confirm the field’s condition and check the wind. The strip looked a hair on the narrow side, but not bad. Also looked a bit tight on obstacles to the north end of the strip, but with 2300 feet of runway to play with, I figured we could afford to land a touch long if necessary.
My student executed a beautiful short/soft field touchdown, dead on centerline, about 200 feet down the runway. Nice work. That’s the way I like to see it.
Here is a shot as we came down final approach:
And here is a shot of taxiing in after landing. I figured the strip was about 30 or 40 feet wide of usable surface, with about 10 feet of gravel down the center of the north half:
Who says late model Cessnas can’t get down and dirty? Here we are, parked on the farm:
My student’s buddy met us and we ran in to town for a cup of coffee.
After hanging out for an hour or so, we let the farmers get back to doing whatever they were doing, and we got back to doing whatever it is we do. Here we go, lining up for takeoff:
Later that day, while hanging out with my boss in the office, I said, “Hey, Bill, you’ve gotta check out this sweet little strip Patrick and I flew in to this morning. It’s not charted or anything, just a cropduster strip that doesn’t get used much anymore.”
“Ohh…ummmm…yeah. Cool. Umm…just so you know, I don’t think we’re insured for that…” Bill hesitantly said.
He wasn’t upset with me. He knows I’m used to flying at places like that, so he wasn’t especially worried about this particular flight, in fact he admitted it looked like fun. He just told me I probably ought to stick to at least using charted strips in the future.
No problem. Point taken.
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Too bad there aren’t many “challenging” strips near us here in Nebraska. Until it gets to be less than 2500 feet long or under 40 feet wide, it doesn’t seem to take any particularly good piloting technique and leaves me feeling kind of empty as a pilot. Having 3500 foot paved runways everywhere is nice in a way, but I think it makes pilots get complacent over time, too.
The planes we fly are capable of safely handling sooooo much more than we give them credit for. When a pilot gets really, really comfortable with the operating envelope of a particular model, it’s amazing the performance that’s possible out of relatively modest aircraft like the 172.
But I guess we aren’t insured for that. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Talk to you later!