Fun in the Grass

Yesterday afternoon flew out to a private, grass field in Central PA for the first time. (first time to this field -- not first time landing on turf!)

If you've ever flown over Central PA -- in June, it's all green.

I coordinated with the field owner, and I asked for a location. He said it was "14 miles on 270 radial of Ravine VOR." I asked him for nearby road names and did a fly-by on Google Earth in the morning.

I decided to file since there were some scattered clouds and buildup along a few ridges, and above would be smoother and cooler than below. Besides, it never hurts to keep up with IFR procedures and language, I like having additional eyes looking for traffic, and it forces me to keep up the discipline of flight plan and briefing, etc.

I took off 10 minutes late at 1440 into the bouncy sky and through bumpy CU over the ridges near Johnstown and Altoona. As I climbed I left the heat behind and enjoyed the cooler air streaming in through the wing root cans.

Harrisburg Approach -- as usual -- gave me a "Fly direct HAR VOR" -- about 50 degrees right of my planned, filed, cleared, and desired course. Ugh -- I can never fly through that airspace without some inexplicable change of routing.

Anyway, the new course meant I was approaching from the southwest, as opposed to the west, so things looked different that what I'd rehearsed.

I cancelled IFR once below the scattered CU to get out of HAR APP clutches, flew towards the Susquehanna River, and was looking at two identical valleys -- same town position along the river, same ridge height and direction -- same everything.

I looked at the secondary VOR and I was a bit left of the 270 radial. I turned 15 degrees right, and flew towards the more southern valley.

In the distance I saw the small, one acre pond that had been visible on Google Earth. I switched to 122.75 and Dane answered on his handheld. I flew along until I spotted two red barns -- he said he saw me overhead, so I must be close!

And then… those two lovely white barrels that marked the runway end. As soon as I saw those the “runway” popped out from the landscape and I didn’t have any more problems visualizing it or my position relative to it.

I flew a normal pattern and landed a tiny bit long (the runway slopes up, but I didn't adequately adapt for the upslope illusion).

I floated a bit while feeling for the surface. I felt the mains touch and kept the nosewheel up (whew) and I bumped along on the rollout of my first turf landing in a while.

I had dinner with our friends, did a talk for their church youth group, and then hustled back to the airport for the return flight home.

I wanted to be off NLT 2015, but we didn’t get to the airport until 2020. Everything checked out, a hurried goodbye, and then I was bouncing down the turf and airborne 10 minutes later, watching trees and then the muddy Susquehanna pass beneath me.

The flight back was smooth. There were a few stretches of flying in and out of the cloud tops (it’s rare that happens – I’m either in the middle of the soup or above or below).

8k put me in and out of the tops, and I enjoyed the wonderful sensation of speed as I approached and broke through wisps of disintegrating cumulus.

The sunset was beautiful; the airplane was flying as expected, and so I pressed on the 20 minutes after darkness finally fell from JST to KFWQ.

I cancelled over KLBE, descended gradually, and clicked on the lights 20 miles out. The taxiway lights shone blue and bright, and the straight-in approach at 90 MPH (old airplane) seemed to take forever – everything was in a state of suspended animation until the last hundred feet – then the runway leapt up, the airplane settled down, and the transition from flying to rolling was barely perceived.

I announced clear of the active to no one, pushed the airplane in the hangar, and listened to the engine clicking as it cooled while wiping off the summer bugs.

A motorcycle ride home in the dark put the icing on this wonderful afternoon and evening.