Calibredave,

I am using a side exhaust Webra which means I have to stick the muffler out the side of the airplane. I attached an image to see how it looks on the left side.

We established our new field in the early 90's and got the paved runway in 2000. You can see our field on our website www.newportnewsrc.org Having the paved runway really helps the guys with retract gear. If you remember there is always a lot of rain in the spring and the ground gets quite soft. I have seen many a pilot rip the retracts out of their wing from soggy ground, mole holes, etc. If your grass strip is well maintained then you should be ok. It should be a simple matter to bolt some aluminum gear to the plywood plate under the fuse if you ever decide to go that route.

Have fun!!