A Learning Experience

[sideslip]

An interesting experience yesterday. My wife and I went visiting relatives about 100 miles away and went into a strip (grass) that I had not been into before. The strip has alot of ultralight and hanglider activity and I knew that prior to going.

At about 2 miles out I was at pattern altitude and looking for activity as I heard nothing on the radio (no unicom or ctaf just 122.9). Closer in, I could see lots of hangliders around, especially over near the downwind leg, so I decided to enter an upwind leg (wind was from the south and I was north) at a slow speed to give me more time to spot activity near the downwind. The arrival end of the runway was filled with hangliders waiting for a tow. I turned on every light I had. I circled to a x-wind then into the downwind. People on the ground saw me and started moving the hangliders and by the time I was on final the runway was clear. Then I was down without a problem.

After talking with people on the ground I learned that what I did is what most pilots do when wanting to land there. Circling gave them time to clear the runway.

The one thing I would do differently next time is to slow down even more than I did before entering the pattern. I was in a C-172 and slowed to about 90 kts indicated. Next time I'll go ahead and put the flaps down and slow to 70-75 Kts a couple of miles out. This will give me more time to look for the hangliders in the air. I also learned that the hangliders can hear you coming so a slower speed gives them more time to find you. Your lights help too.

Departure was after sunset but still light. No traffic and all the activity was over. It was 2000 feet of soft field and up hill into the wind. I picked an abort point on the runway just in case. Airspeed was very slow to build but I was able to get into ground effect at 45 kts (stall horn very loud) before the abort point, build up speed to Vx and climb out without a problem.

Fortunately, I practice soft and short field techique often as I go into alot of short grass strips.

Thinking back since there was no traffic at departure time, I probably would have been better off to go to the up hill end of the runway and do a downwind takeoff as the wind was not very strong and the down slope would have helped more than the downwind would hurt. That probably would have made the takeoff easier. Though in selecting an abort point you would have to consider a longer braking distance going downhill.

Just thought I would pass along this experience so if anyone out there comes across similiar situations maybe they can gain from some of my thoughts.

Mike.