Buying property for home + airstrip

willisbr

Active Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Messages
1,371
Location
Pace, Florida
Aircraft
Maule MT7-235; RAF 2000 (sold)
Hey all. I'm in the process of shopping for property to build a home and clear for an airstrip for my RAF. I have one picked out that's in my price and area range. What would be a comfortable length for a grass strip for and RAF? I'm looking at 3 acres and have the option of buying an additional few acres for strip. The owner of the surrounding land mentioned that if we can't work out a deal for the additional few acres north of the purchased property, I could still clear it and use it until it sells. Bottom line: I'd like to buy it all if possible.

I have attached a birds eye view of the property for reference. This appears to be plenty room for a grass strip (750 feet.)

This will be my first land purchase so any additional opinions and ideas ya'll have would be great to hear. Thanks!

Brian

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My opinion only, but you won't have enough airstrip, even with the extra 300 feet at the south end.

I personally limit myself to airstrips of at least 1600' of length, but one that short must have limited or no obstructions at either end. I used to fly into half a dozen different 1300' grass strips with my single place, but would not touch them now with my RAF. Here in Illinois, the corn fields can stretch quite a ways past the end of many runways. I'm not really fond of finding out whether I can successfully land in corn or not, thus the personal length requirements.

Don't know your flying capabilities, but the last thing you want to be doing in your early hours of flying your RAF is having to worry about getting off of too short a runway. And 750' is definitely too short. Everything would have to be perfect each time you took off. In my experience, many of my takeoffs have been less than perfect. Especially in my first 50 hours.

High temperature, no wind, wet grass, taller than normal grass, each can make your takeoff run longer than normal for you.

Don't let your dream of owning your own runway end up hurting you because you could'nt afford enough runway. You can never have too much, but it's very easy to have too little.

Hope this gives you some food for thought.
 
Brian,
Are you planning to register the strip as a STOL/Ultralight strip? My understanding of Florida and FAA regs is that if they determine that you have used the property for flight purposes prior to registration they will not allow future retro-active registration. Just my comment and I hope you find the right property to fly from. After searching throughout most of Florida for a piece of property to fly my RAF, I have just bought a much cheaper home next to the Sebring Florida airport to fly from. They are very ultralight/experimental friendly here. Another issue I found in Florida is that most counties require agricultural zoning with 5 acres minimum to use for aviation purposes.
 
Thanks for the replies. I've since edited the original post to reflect my intention to do 750 feet or more. The more would be to clear the area just south of the planned strip. This would be a feat for sure but it's not outside of practicallity if needed.

I walked the 750 feet today and it seems to be plenty for takoff if I increase my runup RPM. The field north of the strip is low peanut crop. No obstructions. If I had to do a serious abort, I think I would have forgiviness because of that lot. I walked that too. I'm fairly comfortable with the idea at this point but would still like more opinion.

I have not trainined on grass strip yet. THis will be my next task. I'm familiar with some of the requirements to notify the FAA about my intent. I think I need to notify them 20-60 days in advance or something and can also request them to add the strip to future arial maps. I doubt I will do the latter since it will be for gyro purposes only. Wouldn't want anyone else to try and put something down there and not get it out. What do you think about that as well? But then again, maybe I should request it be added for reference purposes only. WIll they include the length in references?

Thanks guys.
 
It might not be that easy, A friend of mine put in a grass strip on his own 17 acres, it took well over a year for county approval, permits, etc.
Make sure you do your homework, the county can prevent you from flying from your own property.
I think that the runway is way too short.
 
Considering the FAA wants a minimum of 50' agl BEFORE passing over the end of the runway, which is still very low in the case of a T/O engine out, I agree that 750' , or even 1000' of runway is critically short. It may be better to NOT involve the authorities, and NOT call attention to having a runway in the first place, regardless of length. Even a private runway may be used for emergency landings, which could leave you liable. A foreclosure in an existing air park might be worth investigating. Best wishes.
 
Ahhhhh,
My dream. I never want to retire, just have a small place, sell fuel, tie downs, some hangar space, whatever. Neighbors, they can make or brake you, all two faced for the most part. Jealous, who knows, I had a scenic flight service for a short time, had fed, state, town, and property owner approval. worked great for a while, let the neighbor's kid get his grubs all over my cyclic, daddy drank beer as i talked with him. I operated sat and sun afternoons, four hours each day, low traffic, a real hit in the making and did ok for a short while, then this neighbot and an adjoining one sued me, the town, and the property owner and that was the end of that. it was a great spot for a small helicopter serice, already polluted with tourists and I was never able to recover from losing that spot and i couldn't afford the insurance any more, had to sell the ship, and then got into gyros. I'm looking for a spot, I want at least 2,000' so other planes can land also. There is three strips all in the same geographical area that I'm interested in but I don't think they are for sale. I do know that if you start a private operation and no one complains (unless there are local ordinances already in place like in Stow, Ma.) and you fly for a while, have some visitors, be nice to people who ask, then you may have some positive success. Land owner's rights is a big thing in New Hampshire where I live. Usually, if you don' thave a reason to be there it's get off my property, Mass too. Sometimes doing what appears to be the right thing just doesn't work, so if there are no local ordinances saying you can't have an airstrip, then they cannot just make one up to stop you, maybe a court injunction but other than that just do it. If no one complains you're in, No ipso-facto laws are allowed, unconstitutional I believe, in Mass anyway. I have a RAF ready to test flight soon, I will use asphalt where I originally flew. If you do get a place i suggest you make the tunway/taxi area as smooth as possible, like a golf green. The RAF rotor system is sensitive enough that the factory flight manual states that the rotor must be spinning at least 140 rpm to taxi on anything but asphalt. So good luck, don't be in too much of a hurry be nice to the feds and the state, neighbors often move away and when they move to a place that has a real airport next door, they complain anyway. Screw em.
 
Out of curiosity
Have you set up a marker (@ 750 ft.) at your local air strip to see how you would do?
Even if it’s on pavement.
 
marker

marker

No I haven't,
The only other RAF I've flown is my instructor's, my other ship was a modified Bensen and on a grass strip I bet I used up an easy 500' and then becoming airborne, depending on density altitude and such. It's thrilling enough without making it more risky than flying already is. I've slowly climbed out of some strips that were uphill and fit through the notches in the tree line, looking sideways waiting for the rotor to trim the pine cones off. That's as close as I want to get. Do yourself a favor and just find a longer strip. You know you can put it down on a spot if you have to, taking off is a different part of each flight. My opinion only. John
 
Sorry for any confusion
I should have directed the question towards (willisbr) he wants the strip.:yo:
 
Unless your prevailing wind is from the North, you have problems.
Taking off to the South, you have to clear trees, or the house, and a road.
Does the road have wires?
1000' does not seem near enough to take off and clear 50 feet.
Margins seem inadequate, or non-existent.
 
at your starting point of your runway put a 4 inch pipe into the ground 2 ft deep put cement around the pipe to ground level. at the top weld a one inch rod to go from 4" to 1" .on the 1" rod, mount a piller block bearing and on that piller block mount a aircraft cable.take that cable out to up to 100 ft and put a quick release on it and the quick release attaches to your aircraft.rev up your engine and go around two to three times to build up air speed and hit the quick release and take off. no different from a aircraft carrier.
 
Great place

Great place

I've got a place you can buy....plenty of runway./QUOTE]

Phil's not kidding......nice house built on top of a hangar, AND a 5000' grass runway. All of that just 5 miles north of Okeechobee, Florida. Heck, you could even have fly-in's, and maybe a few renters on site. Phils place is just begging for some activity, and centrally located to everything.
 
Boy, would I love to have that, it is exactly what I'm looking for except it's not in New Hampshire. My plan is to get a place like that and turn it into a commercial enterprise, sell fuel, tie downs , hangar space, and live there of course. How much do you think it is worth, being where it is in Florida? John
 
The special exception for land use on the property alows the airport to be used for repair and maintenance of aircraft, not just as a landing strip. That part makes it a little more valuable. $300,000 would make for a serious family meeting. Last month a $385,000 price was stated, but I haven't spoken to the potential yet, and may never. That price was to a business with a specific interest.

Phil.
 
own airstrip----?

own airstrip----?

Airstrips bring lawsuits and tons of libility----been there-done that also---two friends built strips-both in lawsuits up to their butts--talking big buck problems---Have owned homes on two private airports---lawsuits were flying more than planes----pilots love to sue each other--and if you are talking ex airline pilots-its a whole new game!!!!!---Now at Hilltop Lakes , Texas-a beautiful place-no problems of any great concern yet----knock on wood----Also the libility problem----someone flys in and crashs-guess what---you might be saying insurance----well even a $1,000,000 policy will not help in todays environment where you are hit with a $20,000,000 judgment!----Joe
 
You're right about the liability, make me think for a minute, but like they say, that's what insurance is for. I'm in the tree service business, most towns and cities require that I carry at least a 2M policy. Unfortunately having to carry a policy makes the price go up for users, stipulations, etc. It's just another business to operate, can't be too much worse than the helicopter operation I had and the tree service I currently own and operate. Definately something to consider. That's way out of my price range and it's not in New England, I'm kind of stuck here, an officer in a PRA chapter. We are the only ones in New England if you want gyro info or help. I have a little over 30 acres here but the problem is that it is far from flat, would take some major grade changing and I'm not sure if I have the width to get the 2,000' I want. it was perfect for the heli operation, but I need a little runway for the gyro. In Maine i saw a ranch style house and airstrip for a little over 100k, land there is very cheap. like 30-50 acres for about 30k undeveloped. I can clear it and stump it and grad it, a lot of work but no one said it would be easy. John
 
2 properties for sale at FL09 reasonable you wont have to cut grass best thing ive ever did. saw a friend cutting his strip in august 100 degrees not for me. call if more info needed on the strip 609 233 4414
 
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