A Tall Grass Strip

PART TWO (Link to pictures for the story)

My son, grandson, my son's wife and her father went to the Resort. We spent some time talking to the owner. We then went out to survey the landing strip. It had about 200 feet of mowed area that was quite wide. Then came the tall grass with the path, about 5 feet wide, cut down the center. This part of the strip was also narrower due to more trees on each side. The tall grass was about 3 feet tall and quite thick. This is grass growing since spring and that has never been cut this year. Everybody said we would be in the air by the time we got to the grass but I knew better. I planned to do a short field takeoff using all the cut area I could. (Runway left behind does no good) and head for the cut path. The family walked to the north end of the strip and I gave my grandson a ride to the same end. We lined the plane up and pulled her back to use the entire cut area. My son changed places with my grandson and we prepared for takeoff. I set full flaps, 30 degrees, after doing the normal run up. Everything looked good. I put full throttle on, tried to get the tail up a little and headed for the path. I wanted the right wheel at the edge of the path because after about 10 feet of tall grass the path widened some. As we reached the path I must have had the right wheel in the path and the left wheel plowing through the tall grass because I started to go to the left. As I corrected, or more likely, overcorrected we started to the right and left the path. At this point we were almost flying but each time I tried to lift the plane off the ground, we would settle back down or skim over the ground. We touched what must have been clumps of dirt but kept going. We were now up to 2 feet off the ground, heading down the strip correctly but still in the tall grass. I could not figure why we were not clearing the grass. I assume now that each time I tried to lift it off that the grass slowed us down and we could not get enough flying speed. Finally, more than half way down the strip we cleared the tall grass. We did not have much airspeed and I assume we were flying at the stalling edge for full flaps, about 40 nautical or less. We were not fully loaded so I suppose we could be under the stall speed of 47 mph or 40 nautical and still be flying.

We are now flying about 5 feet off the ground, in ground effect, I assume. The trees at the end of the strip look tall, much taller than the grass ever was. I am now mildly concerned, and thinking of cutting power because I know we could stop in about 100 feet in that tall grass. The plane is flying nicely but slowly. Finally we begin to climb. We climb out of ground effect and continue to climb and build up airspeed. I think we will clear the trees OK and if not I assume I will land in them. That could be a soft landing but a lot of plane damage. We clear the trees at the end of the strip by considerable margin. We continue our climb to 3500 feet MSL. Both my son and I are not saying much and I am thinking a lot about the takeoff. The incident unnerved me for some time after that. We had an uneventful ride to ANE and make a good landing. We taxi up to the hanger and get out. We have a lot of grass to clean out of the wheels, grass stains on the wheel pants and the prop, and even grass in the elevators.

My recommendation to anyone that wants to fly in to Tamerac is: