[COUPERS] short field performance

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List,   I gotta question for you. What has been your shortest distance take-off and landing? Your technique? Wind conditions at the time?   The reason I ask, Ted Lechner and I flew our coupes around the patch today and challenged each other with our short field skills. Ted's C model has rag wings and weighs 918# with rudder pedals. My D model weighs 940# and has no pedals. I had about half fuel in the wings, he a little less. The wind was about 10mph at about the 11 o'clock position. He was able to get airborne in about 800ft and climbed out at 800fpm at 65-70mph. I used about 50ft more runway the he did and climbed out at 650fpm at 70mph.   Landing however is were I prevailed. I'll probably get abused over this but here goes. Using an emergency engine out approach (engine at idle abeam the numbers) and cutting a very close pattern I was able to land in less than four hundred feet. In fact we have a grass area prior to the paved runway that is nice and smooth and using it enabled me to stop on the numbers. Now before you accuse me of unsafe flying please note. Ted and I were the only ones flying, there is no displaced threshold, no buildings on final, no little orphan children or puppies playing in the grass, and I have discussed the possibility of using the grass to land with the airport owner with no objection. He has landed a 152 in the grass and turned off at the run-up area the same as I did today. I didn't think a coupe could land that short.   Okay, let me hear it! I would like to invite certain unnamed Alon drivers to land shorter, I'll by lunch.   Mike (don't need no stinking runway) Shipley N3022H somewhere in the vicinity of Q94