I've been flying for a few months now, and I'm enjoying it immensly. The problem is that the closest airfield to me is 40 minutes away. I'm a student, so I really don't have the time or money for gas to do this very often.

Just across the street is a highschool and public park with massive fields of grass, but it's thick enough that it would just flip the plane over when it lands. The parking lots are usually empty, and they're pretty big, but I would never be able to get my plane to stop rolling on pavement before I ran out of room.

I'm considering putting some big heavy wheels on the plane to land on the grass, but I don't know how well that would work, and it would no doubt hurt performance. I'm also thinking about putting something on the wheels that create enough friction to slow the plane but not flip it so I can land on pavement. Fully functional brakes connected to the radio using servo's would be ridiculously expensive I imagine, but surely there are makeshift brakes.

I know a lot of fields have paved runways. How do most people stop their planes when they're landing on pavement? Just let it roll until it's going slow enough to steer?

The plane I'm flying is the Great Planes Big Stik 40: http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXBMM9&P=ML

The club I'm in has a grass runway so I do not have personal experience with this.
I've heard of putting rubber washers (or really short pieces of fuel tubing) between the wheel and wheel collar to create a braking effect. Of course you have full time brakes even when taking off. If the Big Stik has stock trike gear you'd put the 'brakes' only on the rear wheels. If it's a tail dragger this probably wouldn't work at all.

Could you kill the engine and glide in? That way it would stop sooner.

Can you take off from the pavement and land on the grass without hurting the plane?

Dave Brown sells lightweight wheels. They'd have more aerodynamic drag than the smaller wheels but might not weigh any more. Here's a link to the 3.5 inch version:
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXB929&P=0

My 60 size trainer called for 3.25" wheels. They looked really small so I used 4".

You'll have to practice your landings so that the plane is flying at the slowest possible speed when it touches down. After touch down, continue to hold full up-elevator. This is "aerodynamic braking." The only other thing you could do is add flaps. Flaps cause a lot of drag and can help slow on landing.

The "fuel tubing washers" have been used effectively for slowing the plane on pavement. You use the wheel collar to adjust the friction against the wheel. You'd need to find a balance the would slow the plane sufficiently on landing, but still allow reaching take off speed.
Dennis-

I also know of those who put wing tip skids on there planes, the turn hard, have the skid hit, then they have slowed down greatly and they simply taxi back

If you do deside to land in the grass, I will warn you now, you WILL nose over

i use fishing line between the wheel and collar it stops it just enough, and u just got to give it like 4 more clicks of throttle to get it rolling works pretty good

There are 2 issues with flying off grass. Excess height of the grass, and whether the surface under it is smooth or not. My field is grass, and I could mow to 1/2 inch, but the ground under it wasn't level enough to taxi on. I would nose over constantly. Once I bought a roller, I got it smooth enough to run on, grass height is less of an issue. You just don't want to hear the "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" sound while taking off. It coats the plane with grass clippings, and turns everything green. The grass for me can be up to about 3 inches.

Sounds like a hand launch and belling land is the answer. Also electrics would be a safer way to go. Perhaps a SPAD Glow would be anohter option - CHeap, durable and launchable.

IMveryHO of a very new flyer....

if you need to enginner so much..it just doesn't sound like the best place to fly..

Personnally I would like a little room for error. I know for a fact that every one of my take offs and landings will not be perfect...ever.

Any other location options???
Or the electric would be perfect.

Well, I was planning on taking off from the pavement, that wouldn't be a problem. The parking lot is probably 50% longer than the grass runways at the airfield I go to (don't know the exact length and I'm poor at judging distances, sorry :P). I've gotten pretty good at landing at very low speeds, but I know there is still enough momentum that it would nose over if it landed on thick grass.

I could kill the engine, and probably have enough room to stop, but that's getting pretty risky. Balancing the amount of friction for being able to take off and land in a limited amount of room might work or might not. The skids on the wingtips sound like the best idea, but I'd have to look into it a little more. The wings are made from balsa so I don't know how well that would hold up. I assume the skids were just a plastic?

Thanks for the idea's.