joe_323 wrote:
As both a sailing and a flying instructor I deal with these issues
quite a bit. You don't want people doing stupid macho stunts and
killing themselves, but there is also such a thing as being too
chicken. Beyond a certain limit you have to wonder at a person's basic
ability. A pilot with little short field experience passing up a 1200
foot strip is a smart pilot. If he is unsure of getting a Skyhawk into
a 2500 fot strip then I would wonder if he had the required aircraft
control skills to be flying AT ALL.

How hot, how high, how heavy ?.
Getting in should be OK, but getting back out again could be problem.
BTDTGTsoiled underwear.

On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 20:13:44 +0100, Chris Newport
wrote:

joe_323 wrote:
As both a sailing and a flying instructor I deal with these issues
quite a bit. You don't want people doing stupid macho stunts and
killing themselves, but there is also such a thing as being too
chicken. Beyond a certain limit you have to wonder at a person's basic
ability. A pilot with little short field experience passing up a 1200
foot strip is a smart pilot. If he is unsure of getting a Skyhawk into
a 2500 fot strip then I would wonder if he had the required aircraft
control skills to be flying AT ALL.

How hot, how high, how heavy ?.
Getting in should be OK, but getting back out again could be problem.
BTDTGTsoiled underwear.
I used to *hate* doing rental checkouts for our Mooney out of our 2300
foot strip with the proverbial 50 foot trees at each end. There was
about a 2 knot spread between stalling into the near trees or floating
into the far trees. OTOH after my students soloed there I never
worried about them going to other airports :)

joe_323 wrote:
On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 20:13:44 +0100, Chris Newport

How hot, how high, how heavy ?.
Getting in should be OK, but getting back out again could be problem.
BTDTGTsoiled underwear.

I used to *hate* doing rental checkouts for our Mooney out of our 2300
foot strip with the proverbial 50 foot trees at each end. There was
about a 2 knot spread between stalling into the near trees or floating
into the far trees. OTOH after my students soloed there I never
worried about them going to other airports :)

Most of my flying was hot&high in Africa.
I tried a Mooney and came to the conclusion that it was too damn
slippery for my liking, and definitely not a short field candidate. It
always gave me the impression that it would get away from me on finals
given even half a chance.

After a few worrying moments in the Bonanza I always stuck to the C182
or preferably the 690B when I could grab it. Both much better suited to
visiting farm strips.

OTOH, I always loved to watch the Pilastus Porter owned by the skydiving
club, their pilot could get that thing down and stopped before the
parachutists hit the ground. Amazing machine.