Landing in a field

Come to think of it, our glider ops take place in a field. Sure it is airport property, but it isn't a runway.
 
stormchaser said:
We had an all-out discussion about this amongst pilots last season on the road. To solve the problem, I called the Kansas FSDO...

The guy's response?

"We can always get you for careless or reckless operation." It was like he was looking for that! But so as to not be had by a Fed, I prodded further. What about the pilots in Alaska taking off on roads?! What about crop-dusters landing for refueling on country roads?! By asking further, he said that it may NOT be illegal by the books. "BUT," he went on, "if ANYTHING happens (broken wheel, ANY type of property damage), we will surely go after you for careless or reckless operation. No doubt about it."

He said you can always request to have an airport approved on your property. But again, that was NOT what I was asking (I was relentless). So after more questioning, he went further about the crop-dusters. They have to (are supposed to) get the highway patrol involved in EVERY take-off and landing. The police have to block off both sides of the roads for every take-off and landing. Of course, someone will know someone where this is not the case. Exactly.

But he was pretty adamant about not doing the field landing (my grandpa has a farm, and that's what I wanted to do!). Even if it wasn't illegal by the books, if ANYTHING happened, then I could get a lil' record on my flying!

Part 2

At a pilot's request, I called up the New York FSDO.

The answer? "Absolutely, positively NO WAY that you can land in a field, outside of an EMERGENCY." They wouldn't budge one bit. It's always dangerous up there for some reason???

I kid you not.
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hmm interesting response from the NY FSDO. The kansas FSDO is about what I would expect. I think you can probably get hit with a 91.13 for doing a lot of things people do on a regular basis.

AS far as the New york guy's response...just because it isn't mentioned in the regs doesn't make it illegal.
 
Some of my favorite aviation experiences have been landing off airport. Filing flight plans to those places has been nearly as much fun. ;)
 
cmill said:
If you think you can do it without a problem, then go for it. Break a wheel, just dont report it.
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But check state and local laws first. If you do it in wilds of Montana, no one is likely to care. If you do it in New Jersey and the authorities find out about it, they will make you pop the wings off and trailer the plane back to an actual airport.
 
I worked for a crop duster in western KS in high school. They always landed on dirt roads and fields.

He even flipped his super cub at least once that I know of. We just hooked a rope to the tail wheel and flipped it again (nose over) back on its wheels.. He got in - started it up, said he'd be back in 45 minutes with another plane and off he went.

I stayed and waited and sure enough he swapped planes and we went back to work like nothing ever happened
 
mshunter said:
And even then.... I heard from one of my CFI's in AZ that he had a friend land on a highway after an engine failure, and the AZ Highway Patrol cited him for an unregistered vehicle on a public road.
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Friend of mine was transiting from east coast to west coast when the formation split up and radar lost one of the F-4s in the gaggle. The guy driving the 'lost' F-4 was almost out of fuel, decided to drop down on his own and found himself over a Texas highway. He dropped gear and flaps and landed. He then pulled off to the side of the highway, folded the wings and shut down. He hiked to the nearest farm, called and soon, my friend, was enroute to the downed F-4. (we will call him Don as he hates any mention of him being written up). Don contacts the base commander at a nearby AFB, gets a fuel truck to the F-4 along with a huffer to start the F-4. The Texas highway patrol cordons off a section of the highway for Don to takeoff but not before they issue Don a ticket for speeding, operating without a muffler and for no tag. Don hops over to the AFB, refuels and makes it home to his west coast base.

He showed me the photo and the article about the F-4 so it IS a true story.
 
Orange Anchor said:
Friend of mine was transiting from east coast to west coast when the formation split up and radar lost one of the F-4s in the gaggle. The guy driving the 'lost' F-4 was almost out of fuel, decided to drop down on his own and found himself over a Texas highway. He dropped gear and flaps and landed. He then pulled off to the side of the highway, folded the wings and shut down. He hiked to the nearest farm, called and soon, my friend, was enroute to the downed F-4. (we will call him Don as he hates any mention of him being written up). Don contacts the base commander at a nearby AFB, gets a fuel truck to the F-4 along with a huffer to start the F-4. The Texas highway patrol cordons off a section of the highway for Don to takeoff but not before they issue Don a ticket for speeding, operating without a muffler and for no tag. Don hops over to the AFB, refuels and makes it home to his west coast base.

He showed me the photo and the article about the F-4 so it IS a true story.
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:picsplease:
 
Douglas said:
Come to think of it, our glider ops take place in a field. Sure it is airport property, but it isn't a runway.
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The FSDO would be pretty damn busy if they wrote it up every time a glider landed out, or a tow plane retrieved it.

And there are various reasons for launching/landing from an area other than an airport runway.

As long as you have permission for the owner of the field, and the owner and insurer of the airplane, you aren't breaking any FARs. There are certainly commercial operations at fields here in Florida that aren't listed as private airports with the FAA or FLDOT, or marked on charts, but the FAA has never made an issue of them to my knowledge.

And Attitude Indicators? I haven't even seen one in an aircraft cockpit in six months ;)
 
Come on over to the rotary wing side. Landings in city streets, farm fields, backyards, and small clearings are normal ops.
 
drunkenbeagle said:
The FSDO would be pretty damn busy if they wrote it up every time a glider landed out, or a tow plane retrieved it.

And there are various reasons for launching/landing from an area other than an airport runway.

As long as you have permission for the owner of the field, and the owner and insurer of the airplane, you aren't breaking any FARs. There are certainly commercial operations at fields here in Florida that aren't listed as private airports with the FAA or FLDOT, or marked on charts, but the FAA has never made an issue of them to my knowledge.

And Attitude Indicators? I haven't even seen one in an aircraft cockpit in six months ;)
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Yeah that^

Between all of the off-field landings in gliders that I have done/seen/retrieved/heard about, the FAA didn't intervene a single time. Even in the off chance that someone did damage something bad enough to call the NTSB I have never heard of any certificate action. A glider pilot might be able to pull the 'E' card if something were to come up though easier than an airplane pilot that just landed on purpose.
 
As mentioned earlier, there isn't a reg that says take offs and landings must be on a runway, think about seaplanes and gliders. Seaplanes would be pretty boring if you couldn't explore.

Check in to local ordinances such as city, county, state and of course the land owner. With out the landowner's permission you're trespassing.
 
I once got an earful from the BLM and was told never to come back. It was an "OFF-ROAD" vehicle area, I really don't see what the big deal was....
 
stormchaser said:
We had an all-out discussion about this amongst pilots last season on the road. To solve the problem, I called the Kansas FSDO...

The guy's response?

"We can always get you for careless or reckless operation." It was like he was looking for that! But so as to not be had by a Fed, I prodded further. What about the pilots in Alaska taking off on roads?! What about crop-dusters landing for refueling on country roads?! By asking further, he said that it may NOT be illegal by the books. "BUT," he went on, "if ANYTHING happens (broken wheel, ANY type of property damage), we will surely go after you for careless or reckless operation. No doubt about it."

He said you can always request to have an airport approved on your property. But again, that was NOT what I was asking (I was relentless). So after more questioning, he went further about the crop-dusters. They have to (are supposed to) get the highway patrol involved in EVERY take-off and landing. The police have to block off both sides of the roads for every take-off and landing. Of course, someone will know someone where this is not the case. Exactly.

But he was pretty adamant about not doing the field landing (my grandpa has a farm, and that's what I wanted to do!). Even if it wasn't illegal by the books, if ANYTHING happened, then I could get a lil' record on my flying!

Part 2

At a pilot's request, I called up the New York FSDO.

The answer? "Absolutely, positively NO WAY that you can land in a field, outside of an EMERGENCY." They wouldn't budge one bit. It's always dangerous up there for some reason???

I kid you not.
Click to expand...


poser765 said:
hmm interesting response from the NY FSDO. The kansas FSDO is about what I would expect. I think you can probably get hit with a 91.13 for doing a lot of things people do on a regular basis.

AS far as the New york guy's response...just because it isn't mentioned in the regs doesn't make it illegal.
Click to expand...

Just par for the course.

You want 82 different answers to the same question?

Call all 82 FSDO offices and ask them one!
 
Yes you can land in a field, you can land on a road, you can land lots of places. Local municipal laws might be a problem and naturally you cannot endanger others. Your average small single and even a lot of light twins can operate just fine off many unimproved surfaces.

However, if you're not running big soft tires, make sure you scout the surface and approach/departure paths first. Thick grass, ruts, gopher holes, and barbed wire fences can ruin your day really fast.
 
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