Sender: <marv@lancaironline.net> (Marvin Kaye)
To: lml
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 16:50:38 -0400
Message-ID: <redirect-1650938@logan.com>
From: "Bill & Sue" <harrelson@erols.com>
References: <list-1648815@logan.com>
Subject: Re: [LML] Re: Grass fields
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>  My Father and I have a 3500
> grass strip at the farm....


Jarrett,

I fly my 320 off of  grass strips on a fairly regular basis. I haven't had
any problems. I would make the following recomendations:

    1. Don't fly off of grass unless you have the Ong's deboingers or one of
the other aftermarket shock absorbers. The rubber doughnuts supplied with
the kit work about as well as concrete.

    2. Don't fly off of just any grass strip. If it's smooth, mowed and
level (as yours sounds like it is) you'll probably be OK.

    3. Practice your soft field technique. When making the takeoff roll with
the stick full back, you'll notice that when the nosewheel comes off the
ground, it does so very abruptly. The normal reaction is  to release too
much back pressure which results in the nosewheel dropping back to the
ground, again rather abruptly. The nose high takeoff can be done, it just
takes some practice to get used to the particular characteristics of our
planes. Practice on a wide hard surface runway before you try it on turf.

    4. Landing technique should be to touchdown at minimum speed. I find
that this can be best accomplished with a full stall landing along with a
tiny bit of power.

Hope this helps,

Bill
harrelson@erols.com
N5ZQ
LNC2    O-320    Ong's deboingers