A friend of mine owns a property which is surrounded by grassland a sizeable chunk of which is pretty flat. I asked him a while ago if I might be allowed to keep MYRO there and he said he couldn’t see any reason why not. I reminded him of that the other day and he suggested that I should go and have a look as I hadn’t seen the property up to then.
When I arrived I was literally gob-smacked. The property itself is beautiful but what’s more relevant to me is that it sits next to a small area of microlighting heaven. The land is fairly elevated so it’s pretty well drained for starters which is helped even more by the ground being quite sandy. Also the area in question is firm, flat and evenly grassed with only a modest east-west downslope and also nicely shaped so you could have a choice of directions in which to land and take off.
The shortest ‘runway’ would be 06/24, shown below, at 175 yards. At one end there is a wide gap in trees on the perimeter and at the other a group of low trees situated some way from the end of the ‘runway track’.
The next would be 11/29 at 210 yards, shown below, with medium-size trees at one end and low trees at the other.
And finally there’s what would be 08/26 at 250 yards, again with medium-size trees at one end and low trees at the other.
There are no nearby neighbouring properties that would be overflown on any of the above ‘runway centrelines’ which is, of course, a very valuable bonus and there’s even a lovely little sheltered spot between some high trees where MYRO could be left safely tied-down under covers.
At the moment my friend is still thinking about it so I’m having to sweat it out with my fingers crossed. I really hope that from my point of view he comes to the ‘right’ decision because as well as solving a key problem for me, it would also give me a superb venue to fly from, as it’s situated quite nicely almost in the centre of Kent.
I’ll let you know how it turns out.
English
Nederlands
Français
Deutsch
Italiano
Latviešu valoda
Português
Español
Not short for an AX3 Tony! Unlike your Rans we’re very draggy and drop like a brick when you close the throttle (well not quite). Landing distances can be amazingly short even without using brakes because of the small wheels. But it would mean always having good speed control – 55 dropping to 50 over the threshold. It’s a pity that what upslope there is goes towards the trees rather than the other way round though. Also if the trees are developing lift it wouldn’t help either. I’ve found that to be a problem where I practise circuits – just when you think you’ve got it set up beautifully all of a sudden you’re going up like an elevator, which rather messes things up as well. But it’s a lovely location Tony. I can’t tell you where it is but you’d love it too if you saw it.
My fingers are crossed for you! Would there be any chances of cutting a gap in the trees, otherwise allowing the length of field wasted while you come over the trees, it will be very short runways, especially on hot sunny days (if we ever get them!!!!)