Spaceclam

this story is a fog now in my memory because it was so long ago and things like this aren't supposed to happen. in theory.

Let me discribe my field a bit first. our runway is about 400 feet x 50 feet, and is situated atop a large hill in simi valley. on the left side is a 45 degree drop that goes maybe about 200 feet, as well as the exposed side of the runway. we have about another 300 feet of runnoff twards the freeway i will describe. at the time, our pilot boxes were in fromt of the pitts, but were later moved to the end of the runway because of freeway problems. (the 118 freeway funs along our right side facing out) our pilot boxes are about 4 feet high. there are almost always crosswinds going either pushing us up when we reach the edge of the mountain or sucking us down unexpectedly, so we have to be careful.

it was somewhere in my first year of the hobby, i know because i was flying my trainer. but i was solo, so it couldn't have been too early. so one day, we are flying as usual when we notice a plane circling our field with flaps and gears down. we thought he was in trouble. so we all landed, at one point two at a time, and the pilot gradually descended tward out field. we had all shut off our gear in a hurry now, and were backed up against the fence, expecting the worst.
he lined himself up on the left side of the runway, and did FOUR TOUCH AND GOES. THAT IS RIGHT, FOUR TOUCH AND GOES. i remember, it was a plane probably from the 40's to 60's, though i could not make it out. it had that silvery, unpainted bare metal finish, (maybe you guys can help me here) was rather short, low wing, and had a bubble canopy. i remember clearly, the guy had on those ugly avocado green headphones, and on the last approach, waved. i am not kidding. he raised his flaps and sped off.
There was that irritating moment of silence which lasted about 15 seconds, as averybody stared at eachother, or tward the plane now fading away in the distance. it was fairly quiet the rest of the day, but not too many people flew again.
too bad nobody had their cameras with them, but if any of you guys would like to take a look at the field, go to www.simiflyers.com

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

We had a field in Orangeburg NY that was only 1/2 mile from a small airport. We had a paved runway and taxi strips. The airport was eventually closed, and the area was flooded by a new reservoir. So for years, anyone using an old map would try to touch down on our runway, thinking it was the airport!

It made for some interesting evenings.

Sawyer692-RCU

My Feedback: (6)

Sounds kinda like an Aerocoupe: http://www.airplanes.com/photos/christ02.html

linclogs

We had that problem at the field of a club I used to belong to. 200' paved model runway with several hundred feet of grass overruns at both ends but also high tension wires about a quarter mile or so off the south end of the runway. Some guy in a Vultee BT-13 showed up one day, flew under the high tension wires and made a touch and go on our paved runway! We were concerned because our pavement was only 2" thick. He could have punched through it and wound up doing an endo right in front of everybody. We checked with FAA on what we could do and they advised putting an "X" on both ends of the runway (I noticed the photos you provided the link to show X's on that runway, too). This is supposed to let full-size aircraft know the runway is closed to traffic.

We also had a few un-invited ultralights use our runway when no one was present (found out from a neighbor). But FAA assured us, anyone that used the runway when an "X" was painted on it did so at their own risk.

Tippie

It would probably be a good idea for any club that has a hard surface runway to paint "X's" in each end. It would be a little difficult to maintain "X's" on the ends of a grass strip.

rogwabbit

Sawyer692,

Sounds kinda like an Aerocoupe... You took the words from my head as I was reading that description too..

h8w8n

Spaceclam.....it was a Ryan Navion. I was there too. The wierd part is the same guy made a landing approach about a year before. He is the son of a friend of one of the ex-members.
Is your name Andrew?

Spaceclam

couldn't have been, it was a single tail

Spaceclam

yes, i am andrew. i remember you, and i have your name currently on the roster. how's it goin? except for a meeting, i don't think i have seen you in a while. this is my new plane, to your left. omg. what a laugh

Bish Wheeler

Was thinking it had to be a Navion since you said it had flaps and retractable gear. Ercoupe had fixed gear and no flaps. The Navion had sort of a bubble canopy.

Bish

h8w8n

Iwas at the field a few weeks ago with George. I fly mostly at the Condor's field. I would have been there for the barbeque on the 27th but we had our annual event called the gathering of the giants on the same day.
Have you been to the Condor field? Check it out sometime.

Homebrewer

My Feedback: (8)

Forget about the X's on the end of the runway. If the pilot is clueless enough to land on a 200' paved runway, let him do society a favor by cleaning up the gene pool.

Spaceclam

yes, he is definatly retarded, and it would be better if he did not pass that along. however, yes, i have been to the condor field. but i don't plan to become a member because it is about an hour drive from my house. it is about a half hour from the flying field, so we checked it out once. but you did not miss anything at the barbecue. that was the most pathetic fun fly i ever saw. no visitors, all re regulars and about 2 people you don't see often. hey, i was just at the field today, and what do you know, scott showed up. he definatly lost some weight, and he was far more cheerful than i ever knew him. i can't tell whether he came to re-connect with old friends or if he had really made peace. hope to see ya around,

linclogs

I think our club was worried about the liability issue if this guy (or someone else using our model runway) got hurt, or worse, got killed. You know how these jokers love to do things they shouldn't, wind up hurting themselves and then they (or their relatives) sue YOU like it was YOUR fault! Doesn't matter if you wind up being found not at fault - it still costs to defend yourself, (or the club in this case). The point about the "X's" was, according to the FAA, this put the fault on the person(s) ignoring the indication that this was a closed runway.

Spaceclam

people ARE amazing

SDR-Hammer

Years ago our club filed was a grass airstrip and on several occasions we would have to bring our planes in so a full scale could land. A couple years after I started flying the field owners decided to close the strip to full scale traffic but allowed us to maintain a section for R/C. They used old tires painted yellow, arranged in an X to indicate the strip was closed.

big max 1935

My Feedback: (9)

Our field is a 2500 ft Flying Farmer field & the spray pilots think it is great sport to sneak up behind me while i'm mowing & "bomb" me with their paper row markers. Thank God for GPS as that has slowed them since they went to that! MAX H.
( How about that , 1000 threads since November,do I seem windy? Don't answer that.)

Spaceclam

i won't answer that, but from my responding to your message, i think you get the idea