Grass is Great!

A nice grass strip, it harkens back to old days when a flat field was home. No runway markers, just take off and land into the wind.

(Trouble is, when it rains or snows, flight ops can be shut down for weeks. Been there, done that...)

But back to it (grass) went to Creve Coeur (1H0) yesterday and used their parallel for some landings, 3 point landing guys would have been proud.

I came as close to 3 pointing it as I can without dragging tail. Felt good indeed. Don't have the nerve to do a full aft stick 3 pointer as the tail wheel will touch first, rather undignified, unimpressive way to land any airplane.

Am evolving to a technique of what I did yesterday on grass and wheel landings on hard surface. At least that where it is as of today.

David,

Sounds like you're having a good time at it. Glad to hear.

My only experience with grass take offs and landings were with Mike Seagar at Vernonia in the RV-7 while doing transition training. That was a very positive experience. Since then, I stay off the grass in my 8 because my insurance company has a restriction in my policy.

Three pointers you say. Good on you. The grass must absorb some of that energy that might otherwise get converted to a spring loaded bounce on hard asphalt or cement surface.

Did you try 3 pointers exclusively or did you mix in a few wheelies?

Not total 3 pointers Charlie, but tail very low.

No wheel landings on grass but no reason it won't work.

Grass does absorb energy if sink is not just right. The trick is to fly the airplane as close to surface as possible before level off. That takes practice, I tend to level too high and then have to find the surface by dipping wing or letting it settle in which usually results in relaunch as tail drops when mains hit increasing AOA and off you go.

The proper level off height is tricky to identify. You can look down the runway but lately I've been glancing out sideways to get that perspective and it works but not 100%. If it did, flying would be boring.